Dates and times
Sun, Jun 15 - 7:30pm
Tue, Jun 17 - 7:30pm
Thu, Jun 19 - 7:30pm
Fri, Jun 20 - 4:00pm
Sat, Jun 21 - 7:30pm
Double Header Specials available on:
Sun, Jun 15 - 7:30pm
Fri, Jun 20 - 4:00pm
Sat, Jun 21 - 7:30pm
Venue
The PumpHouse Theatre
Prices
| Adult | $40.00 |
| Senior (65+) | $35.00 |
| Student | $20.00 |
| Friends of The PumpHouse | $35.00 |
| Equity Member | $30.00 |
Additional fees
| Booking Fee | $6.00 per booking |
| Card Processing Fee | 2.5% |
How to get tickets
See below for booking options
Event type
About
Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up from a working-class background to being a top criminal defense barrister at the top of her game – prosecuting, cross-examining and winning in the courtroom with her quick wit and intelligence. Fighting to defend those pleading not guilty – including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocent until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of human rights.
An unexpected event however forces Tessa to confront the very system she has spent her life believing and working within – a system where the lines of patriarchal power and burden of proof are not set up to accommodate the lived experience of sexual assault survivors.
Acclaimed Oliver and Tony award-winning play, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie is an unforgettable story and one-woman tour de force that has the power to question the structure of the legal system and takes us to the heart of where emotion and experience conflict within the system as we know it.
Prima Facie was first produced by Griffin Theatre Company in May 2019 at the SBW Stables Theatre followed by the award-winning 2022 West End premiere at the Harold Pinter Theatre which then traveled to the Golden Theatre on Broadway in 2023. Prima Facie is currently being translated and performed all over the world and in 2023 was also released into a book.
Directed by NZ acting royalty Michael Hurst and performed by Cassandra Woodhouse, NZ Theatre Company is honoured to bring Prima Facie to the NZ stage and continue the call to action that this story is demanding worldwide.
“SOMEWHERE. SOMETIME. SOMEHOW.
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE.”
Exclusive Double Header Experience
“Cassandra and I felt that this was an interesting pairing of shows. They are not exactly similar, yet they traverse a complimentary landscape of sexual politics. In both pieces, it’s the patriarchy and it’s lingering misogyny that comes into question. Even separated by 2,000 years, both pieces make us think beyond what we are actually seeing.
It’s fair to say, too, that we bring the two faces of drama into focus by presenting our shows together. These are, of course, happy face and the sad face that we see in theatres and on theatre programmes the world over, the two masks that have come to represent the very concept of entertainment. It’s worth remembering that these two faces are really only one face, the single face of humanity, expressing everything humanity is capable of feeling. I call it the “therapy face”, where the barrier between extreme grief and extreme joy becomes tissue-thin.
You don’t have to see both shows, but seeing both shows will definitely be a rich experience.”
– Michael Hurst
See The Golden Ass and Prima Facie on the same night (with a short break for dinner) and save.
Reviews
Lexie Matheson ONZM: Prima Facie transcends what I know to be ‘the theatre experience’ & it’s become something else that I have no name for. It’s sublime storytelling from a sublime storyteller, shaped by a theatre genius, and it’s for us. A gift without ego. No strings attached. As teamwork, it’s beyond good. Read more »
Tarryn Utiger: “Cassandra has delivered a war cry for the wounded wāhine within so many of us, and it is as fierce as it is vulnerable.”