As a piece of polemic, this play was strong and its message is unquestionably right and one that needs to be disseminated in any way possible. But if I'm honest I found it lacking in art - as written rather than as executed (the staging was fine and the performance by Sheridan Harbridge was compelling). While there's some nice nuance in Tessa's characterisation, the overall structure for how Prima Facie worked through its concept felt too didactic, with too directly determined a narrative and too many direct lectures about things that struck me as already very well known (although there's an obvious set of questions there about audiences for the play and what pre-existing knowledge and/or assumptions they're likely to bring). The best scene was the one that put us in Tessa's head while she's being cross-examined and begins to doubt her own recollection of what had happened, leading the audience in turn to briefly doubt it, and bringing us - in some small way - empathetically into the experience that victims of sexual assault must face when forced into that same position by the criminal justice system.
(w/ Kevin)
