"Something has to change": Why Prima Facie remains one of the most timeless plays in the contemporary moment.

Few contemporary plays have captured the current cultural moment as successfully as Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie. As it's ‘Something has to change tour” draws to a close, a performance of which I was lucky enough to see, the play truly stands as one of the most powerful responses to the cultural discourse surrounding sexual violence and the justice system. 

The ninety-minute phenomenon follows Tessa, played by Jodie Comer, a criminal defence barrister who is accustomed to defending men accused of sexual assault. But, when she becomes the victim of an assault by someone she thought she could trust, the legal system becomes something entirely different and she is no longer asking the questions, but the woman in the stand whose credibility is scrutinised. 

Miller urges the audience to consider not just what the law says but how such trials work in reality: the process that contributes to just 3.9% of rape cases being prosecuted, as well as the traumatisation of victims being forced to relive their experiences in court. By doing so, Prima Facie turns the personal experience of trauma into a powerful indictment of both the legal system and societal treatment of victims. 

Through its one-woman format, the play denies the audience of emotional detachment, forcing them to face the harsh reality of a system that ultimately fails sexual assault survivors. Comer’s remarkable performance is both deeply distressing and thought-provoking, encouraging audiences to question the ability of the very institutions designed to deliver justice, an issue of enduring relevance seven years after Prima Facie’s debut. 

One of the play’s most powerful lines comes as Comer states “One in three women will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. Look to your left, look to your right. It’s one of us.” In a theatre of mostly women, this was especially hard-hitting and I couldn’t stop thinking about the reality of that statistic which only made me angrier at society’s disregard of women’s experiences.

I think what makes this play so significant is that it does not just simply exist as a piece of theatre. It is not melodramatic or superficial, it is authentic and raw, highlighting that this is a play with a job to do: make a call directed at those in power to make changes to the system which is inherently bound against women.

This message is what makes Prima Facie timeless. Unfortunately, violence against women and the failure to get them justice is more relevant than ever. In a world in which the Manosphere is only gaining more momentum and violence against women is on the rise, as Tessa reminds us towards the end of the performance, “Something has to change.”.