Review: Prima Facie Leaves Its Audience In Silence

★★★★★

Prima Facie Sheridan Harbridge Griffin Theatre Company Andrew Henry Presents

There are some shows that are pure entertainment, and there are shows that imprint themselves on you. Prima Facie, at the Comedy Theatre Melbourne, is firmly the latter. It is haunting, devastating and thoughtful theatre that forces you to dismantle your own belief system and question the social norms that formed it.

Written by Australian playwright Suzie Miller and directed by Lee Lewis, Prima Facie follows criminal defence barrister Tessa as her staunch belief in the legal system begins to fracture.

Miller’s writing is sharp, but what makes it extraordinary is how rounded and real it feels. The dialogue never sounds theatrical for the sake of it. It is clearly rooted in Miller’s experience as a human rights and criminal defence lawyer.

Conversations about courtroom strategy with popping onomatopoeia to creating hyper-visuals make you forget there is only a woman and an ergonomic chair on stage.

Prima Facie 2026 Tour — Sheridan Harbridge’s physicality throughout the show is extraordinary. Photo by Brett Boardman

The script feels unmistakably Australian, celebrating quirks in our culture that make an Australian audience feel ‘in’ on the joke. I do wonder if international audiences would quite understand what shortening Damian to Damo (heavy emphasis on the drawl) means to us.

The opening scene hooks you immediately. Tessa barrels onto the stage with confidence, swagger and biting humour, and the audience is instantly swept along with her.

The play moves backwards and forwards through time seamlessly, stitching together scenes and memories in a way that feels fluid rather than fragmented. Miller trusts the audience to keep up, and the result is incredibly rewarding.

At the centre of it all is Sheridan Harbridge, whose performance is nothing short of astonishing. The effort of carrying a one-woman show for ninety emotionally gruelling minutes cannot be overstated, yet Harbridge makes it look effortless.

Sheridan Harbridge Prima Facie Griffin Theatre Company — It is not an easy watch, nor should it be. Photo by Brett Boardman

Her personification of the many characters surrounding Tessa keeps the production dynamic and funny in its lighter moments. A shift in posture, a tilt of the head or a change in rhythm is enough to transform her completely.

One of the most memorable and comedic sequences is a dance scene where Harbridge invites you to lose yourself in the fun with her, before the tone gradually shifts beneath it.

Harbridge’s physicality throughout the show is extraordinary. At the beginning, Tessa stands assertively, taking up space with absolute certainty. As the story unfolds, that confidence physically shrinks. She curls inward, becoming smaller and more fragile on the stage.

Yet by the end, she regains her stance from an entirely different emotional place. It is subtle, deeply intelligent work.

The visuals are equally striking. Small details become painfully significant, reflecting the lived experience of victims and the way trauma latches onto seemingly insignificant moments. A clutched straw bag. Desecrated posters on the wall. These fragments imprint themselves on the audience just as they do on Tessa.

Prima Facie premiered in a 110-seat theatre in Kings Cross in 2018 and has since become an internationally acclaimed show on Broadway and the West End. The show’s producer, Andrew Henry, has called this latest season at the Comedy Theatre “the legacy season” as a celebration of everything this show has accomplished as a mighty Australian show. I couldn’t agree more.

Prima Facie is not an easy watch, nor should it be. But it is exceptional theatre. It is the kind of production that leaves an audience silent as they leave the auditorium, each person carrying the weight of it differently. Australian theatre does not get much more powerful than this.

Prima Facie is presented by Griffin Theatre Company and Andrew Henry Presents. It runs for 2 weeks in Melbourne from 20 May and 3 weeks in Sydney from 3 June 2026.

Tickets for Melbourne: https://primafacieplay.com.au/tickets/melbourne/

Tickets for Sydney are here.

Website: https://primafacieplay.com.au/

Socials: https://www.instagram.com/primafacieaustralia/