Prima Facie - Theater Chronos

By Suzie Miller
Directed by Leonard Dick
Music by Anna Buchegger
Set Design by Milena Keller
Costumes by Celine Walentowski
Featuring Magdalena Köchl
Dramaturgy by Cosima Schubert
Also with Sophie Fröhlich & Helene Fröhlich (Marketing) | Edi Jäger (Assistant)
Production by Theater Chronos Salzburg
Duration approx. 85 min
Australian Writers' Guild Award 2020 / Olivier Awards 2023

Suzie Miller's gripping monologue about power, justice, and the limits of the system. A young lawyer who defends the law—until it lets her down. From defender to accuser. A play that resonates.
Multiple award-winning, celebrated worldwide! One of the greatest theater successes of recent years.
"I only know that somewhere. Sometime. Somehow. Something must change."

Against all odds, the working-class girl Tessa Ensler becomes a successful criminal defense attorney, representing men who stand trial for sexual offenses. She believes in the law, believes in the justice system, and advocates for the presumption of innocence. In dubio pro reo. When in doubt, for the accused.

Then something happens that makes everything she believed in collapse. She becomes a victim. From defender to accuser. She must experience firsthand that the female experience of sexual violence does not fit into the male-dominated justice system. The perpetrator is her colleague Julian, with whom Tessa has engaged in an office affair. During an evening at Tessa's apartment, a sexual assault occurs, and she flees the building and files a report, even though her chances of winning in court are slim. The prima facie evidence is against her. But she decides to fight. It is an indictment of all of us. Of a justice system created by men, for men.

"So much is at stake: my private life, friends, family. My career. Everything, just everything. That scares me."

For years, since her law studies, the author Suzie Miller had the idea for PRIMA FACIE*. But it only materialized against the backdrop of the global #MeToo movement that began in 2017. The play bridges art and social change. Because even today, filing a report of a sexual crime entails attending all court dates: appearing at the indictment, cross-examination, and public media coverage—requiring extraordinary courage. And the process of coming to terms with it is long and demands great trust in the justice of the legal system. But does this system even deserve that trust? Or does it continue to lead victims of sexual violence to prefer silence? How can, how must society evolve to reform this area?

Suzie Miller's stirring monologue premiered in 2019 in Sydney, Australia. More than 300,000 viewers saw the play live in cinemas through the broadcast of the National Theatre in London. Awarded the Australian Writers’ Guild Award 2020, the David Williamson Award 2020, and the Olivier Award 2023.
*Prima Facie: legal term for "prima facie evidence," "until revoked."