Prima Facie (Roslyn Packer) ★★★★★

Written by Suzie Miller. Griffin Theatre Company & Andrew Henry Presents. Roslyn Packer Theatre. 3-21 Jun, 2026.

Theatrical juggernauts are a rare thing, especially juggernauts that start in Australia, but Suzie Miller’s one-woman legal drama Prima Facie is nothing short of a phenomenon – and it’s back for a victory lap in its original form with Sheridan Harbridge back in the lead.

Tessa (Sheridan Harbridge) is a confident, you could say cocky, defence barrister who excels at playing “the game” of law. She believes in the legal system, and dispassionately argues the case of her clients. When she finds herself on the other end of the system, as the victim being cross-examined, she sees the flaws in the law that she believed to be pure.

*Sheridan Harbridge. Photo: Brett Boardman.*

At this stage, there isn’t much left to be said about Miller’s global smash hit (Olivier Awards, Tony Awards, AWGIEs) that hasn’t already been said. Few plays can take credit for changing the legal landscape, with Prima Facie now mandatory viewing for new judges in Northern Ireland, and the formation of the UK group The Examination of Serious Sexual Assault (TESSA) by female barristers to rewrite legislation. The impact has been broader still in raising awareness and advocacy for clearer consent laws and educating audiences on the complex matters of sexual assault cases.

And it all stemmed from this one-woman show at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre back in 2019.

If you’ve never seen the show, then it simply is a “must see”. This is the most significant Australian work of the last decade, probably longer. If you saw the Jodie Comer-led London or Broadway productions (or the NT Live broadcast) it’s worth revisiting both for the sheer power of the play, and to see the original while you can. Think of the Comer version as “The Force Awakens” to Harbridge’s original “Star Wars” – it’s a flawed analogy but I’m sticking with it.

There is a simplicity to this restaging of Lee Lewis’ original direction, in the larger space of the Roslyn Packer – it trades in The Stables Theatre’s intimacy for a sense of scale and power. When Tessa stands alone under a spotlight you feel her isolation. When she swaggers across designer Renée Mulder’s clean open stage with pride, you feel her power fill the space. Paul Charlier’s audio work floods the imagination, while Trent Suidgeest’s lighting has a subtlety that speaks volumes.

It seems almost wrong to talk about how funny and entertaining Prima Facie is, due to the severity of its subject matter and the importance of its message about sexual assault. But the truth is, Miller’s script and Harbridge’s performance bring an enormous amount of light and shade to the story – making the 90-minute running time fly by.

Harbridge’s chameleonic performance brings the cast of characters to life, painting a detailed picture of Tessa and her world – and the key to Prima Facie is the moment Tessa directly addresses the court and lays out the show’s thesis in clear, concise language. It’s almost as if Tessa steps away and Miller herself takes the stage to plead with the audience to understand: the system doesn’t work for these cases. When so many playwrights hide behind ambiguous endings or an emotional sleight-of-hand to avoid tackling big issues, Miller boldly makes her case. It’s utterly compelling and convincing.

In short – go and see it. The hype is real, and the reality more than lives up to it.