Prima Facie

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 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.

Directed by NZ acting royalty Michael Hurst and performed by Cassandra Woodhouse, NZ Theatre Company is honoured to bring ‘Prima Facie’ to the New Zealand stage and continue the call to action that this story is demanding worldwide.

About Cassandra Woodhouse

Based in Auckland, Cassandra is a mother, actress, model and Integrated Nutrition Health Coach. She is passionate about living a full, authentic, healthy, positive and conscious life. She undertook her pursuit of wellness after years of struggling with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, weight gain and low self-esteem. The birth of her daughter ignited a desire to travel, to learn and to question the norm; not only with her own health but the health of her new baby.

While continuing to work in front of the camera, she also enjoys travelling the globe to find what resonates with her as a mother and as a woman on the quest for wellness and self-discovery.

Cassandra has also learnt the crucial role our environment plays in our well-being and calls NZ a tough place to dream big with such an underbelly of tall poppy syndrome and high rates of depression and suicide. Cassandra is determined to be a part of changing the narrative both in her day-to-day life and in the stories, she chooses to produce and perform.

Cassandra is inspired to share the insights she has had and continues to discover.

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