PRIMA FACIE : A SILENCE THAT SPEAKS

From the moment the silence settled over the theatre, we were locked in our seats.

The lights rose.

She entered.And from that first moment, we were hooked.

Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, directed by Neil Coppen and performed by Danica De La Rey Jones, asks an extraordinary amount of its sole performer. For more than two hours, there is nowhere to hide. No scene partner to bounce off. No ensemble waiting in the wings to take over.

Just one actor, one story and an audience.

And De La Rey Jones is mesmerising.

She plays Tessa Ensler, a fiercely intelligent defence barrister who has fought her way from a working-class background into the legal elite. She knows the law. She knows how to use it. More importantly, she knows how to win.

Until she finds herself on the other side of it.

What follows is difficult to watch, but perhaps even more difficult to look away from.

De La Rey Jones does not drop the energy for a moment, but what makes the performance so extraordinary is not simply the stamina it requires. There is something incredibly beautiful about the vulnerability with which she tells Tessa’s story.

She allows us to watch the armour slowly disappear, and when it does, it hurts.

In South Africa, where gender-based violence and sexual assault remain painfully present realities, Prima Facie lands particularly hard. The questions Miller’s play asks about consent, credibility and whether a legal system can adequately serve survivors do not remain comfortably onstage.

They follow you out of the theatre.

Under Coppen’s direction, the production understands that it doesn’t need to scream to make itself heard. Patrick Curtis’ set design creates a world capable of transforming around Tessa with remarkable efficiency, while the transitions between spaces, characters and moments happen almost effortlessly. Particularly impressive is De La Rey Jones’ use of physicality, code-switching and subtle wardrobe changes to move between the many people inhabiting Tessa’s world. No other actors are arriving to help create them. She does it herself.

And somehow, we see them.

Charl-Johan Lingenfelder’s sound design is equally effective. Rather than simply accompanying the performance, it tightens its grip on the audience, building an atmosphere that keeps you perched on the edge of your seat. But perhaps the most powerful sound of the evening is the absence of one.

Silence.

Towards the end of the production, there wasn’t a dry eye in sight. And when it was over, people left quietly. Not the awkward silence of an audience that doesn’t know what to say.

The other kind. The silence where everyone is thinking.

Where something has followed you from your seat and out through the theatre doors.

Where you realise that perhaps there isn’t anything appropriate to say just yet.

And maybe that is precisely why theatre like this matters.

Because Prima Facie does not ask us to leave entertained.

It asks us to leave thinking.

And right now, perhaps we need a little more of that.

PRIMA FACIE

Written by Suzie MillerDirected by Neil CoppenStarring Danica De La Rey Jones

Set Design by Patrick CurtisSound Design by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder

Following its run at The Baxter Theatre, Prima Facie now plays at the Barney Simon Theatre at the Market Theatre from 17 September to 4 October 2026.