Alex Casey talks to Cassandra Woodhouse as she begins her nationwide tour of Prima Facie.
When most actors return to the theatre foyer after a performance, they might expect to be met with hugs, handshakes, bouquets and compliments. But for Cassandra Woodhouse, connecting with audiences after shows sees total strangers collapsing into her arms, quietly revealing stories that they have never told anybody in their lives. “They’ve come with their friends, and they are all dressed up for a night out, but you can just see that they’ve been through something,” she says. “It gives me a chance to hold them and tell them they are not alone.”
Such is the weight and impact of Prima Facie, the award-winning one-woman play written by Australian playwright and former lawyer Suzie Miller in the thick of the MeToo movement. It follows Tess, a criminal defense lawyer who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault and relishes in the bloodsport of cross-examination. But when Tess herself experiences an earth-shattering sexual assault at the hands of someone she trusts, she is forced to take the stand as a survivor and rethink everything she knows about the justice system.
Woodhouse first encountered Prima Facie while in the depths of burnout from touring another nationwide solo show, Hannah, about a young mother given the wrong baby at birth. It had given her an appreciation for the power of bringing theatre into small communities, but had left her exhausted. “I was in need of a bit of respite, so I went to the Rialto and they were showing a screening of a National Theatre show called Prima Facie,” she recalls. “I didn’t know anything about it, but I just thought, ‘oh, it’s a solo show. I’ll go and watch someone else do it better’.”
She emerged from the cinema and immediately started the process to apply for the rights to the play. “I had seen something much bigger than me, a story that had longevity and needed to get to as many people as possible.” While still negotiating, she booked a trip to New York and bought an unmentionably priced ticket to see the play on Broadway starring Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer. “I wanted to confirm I was feeling what everybody else is feeling,” she says. In another turn of synchronicity, she saw one of Comer’s last performances before she won the Tony award.
On her return home to prepare for her first Prima Facie nationwide tour, one of the key things Woodhouse did was spend time in the courtroom watching real rape trials unfold. “It was just about opening myself up to the actual criminal defense side, which was really eye-opening to me,” she says. “Discovering what a game the law is and how many holes there are really blew my mind. We are taught to put so much faith in a system that was designed by generations and generations of men and was not designed to support us.”
Another element she wanted to bring to the tour was having a robust support network around every show, from sexual harm organisation representatives in the audience to hosting inclusive Q&A sessions afterwards. “I think if you’re going to bring people in and provide something that is a bit confronting and triggering, there should be some care there,” she says. Her favourite “magic” Q&A sessions have been when there is a mix of older people, who have never discussed these themes before, and the younger generation who are “hungry” for the conversation.
Along with supporting the audience, Woodhouse has also had to learn how to take care of herself while touring the show without a large support crew. “My nervous system is totally fried,” she laughs. “My mind knows that I’m pretending, but my body doesn’t, so every night, I’m putting my body through all these things. The residue of that is actually very physical to the point where, if I don’t get it out, I’ll get nauseous.” She often goes for a run after her shows to burn off the excess adrenaline, and makes a pre-show ritual of burning Palo Santo in the empty theatre.
Now in her third year of performing Prima Facie, Woodhouse has channelled all her knowledge and experiences into a forthcoming book, which she hopes will continue to help people beyond those she meets in the theatre foyer every night. “I have just learned so much and I know I’m not going to be able to have those really rich conversations with everybody I meet,” she says. “I also found myself repeating a lot of the same stuff everywhere I went, so it is full of all this amazing wisdom you get from the people working in these fields, like police and lawyers.”
And with an Prima Facie film around the corner starring Cynthia Erivo, Woodhouse says the themes of the play remain as relevant now as they were in 2017. “I look forward to the day where we don’t have to be talking about this, but sexual violence is still in our headlines every single day,” she says. As she prepares to have more of those “heavy” conversations around the country, she wants people to know that there is still hope. “I’ve learned justice exists in many forms, and for so many people, it’s not found in the courtroom,” she says.
“It’s often found in someone just sharing their story.”
