Prima Facie: Play about sexual assault used to train NI judges

Playwright Suzie Miller told BBC News NI she believed theatre could change society.

“When you take a character and show, rather than tell, someone what’s not working – it’s really easy to see it when it’s in a story context, and with a character that you really care about,” she said.

Ms Miller said she thought it “engages and ignites people to where the unfairness lies.”

She said she had received phone calls from “so many” judges who came to see the play.

“This is a conversation that everyone has to have and we have to have it now,” she said.

“We need to talk about what we can do within our court system to actually protect someone who’s a complainant and encourage people to complain,

“Encourage them to have faith there will be some outcome that is, at the very least, not re-traumatising for them, but at the better end of the scale is that they are believed.

“The more aware that our judges are in court, the more they can come to terms with something that they see as a rape myth and call it out.”