Australian playwright Suzie Miller, a mainstay of independent stages both in Australia and overseas, is having something of a breakthrough year. Two of Miller’s play are having their mainstage premières – Anna K and RBG, Miller’s ode to American jurist Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Sydney Theatre Company, October–December) – and her Griffin-award-winning play Prima Facie (2019) has been a sell-out smash in London’s West End and broadcast around the world as part of the prestigious NT Live initiative of Britain’s National Theatre. Other productions of Prima Facie, including a season on Broadway and a possible film version, are also in the works, and deservedly so.

A rage against the legal system’s treatment of sexual assault victims, Prima Facie is a monologue delivered by Tessa, a determined young lawyer. Tessa revels in her ability to master the beast that is the legal system, only to find that beast turning on her when she herself is raped. A play that deftly clarifies and concentrates the moral and ethical fault-lines within sexual assault laws, Prima Facie underlines the differential treatment of victims and perpetrators in sexual assault cases. It’s a roller-coaster ride for both the sole actor and its audience as it probes an expansive range of voices, emotions, and motivations.