Prima Facie
Eline Arbo directs Maria Kraakman in author Suzie Miller's award-winning play. Prima Facie is a cutting monologue that caused a stir on West End and Broadway, and has been broadcast worldwide in cinemas by National Theatre Live.
Location Dutch tour
Duration tba
Genre theatre
Language Dutch
Ticket sales have not yet started at all venues.
Premiere Thu November 30, De Schuur, Haarlem
Prima Facie
Maria Kraakman plays the role of Tessa, a clever and ruthless criminal defence lawyer specialising in sex crimes. She has broken away from her working-class environment and now resides among the privileged elite. Justice is a sport to her. She feels that, compared to her male colleagues, she undercuts sexual abuse victims in a neat way. Until the tables irrevocably turn. An unexpected event confronts her with the tense relationship between the patriarchal power of the law, the burden of proof, and morality.
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With her adaptation of Weg met Eddy Bellegueule (Away with Eddy Bellegueule), Eline Arbo won the Regieprijs 2020 (Directing Award 2020). Last season, she directed the hit performance The Years based on the book by Annie Ernaux, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. For ITA, she previously directed The Hours after the novel by Michael Cunningham and Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist. Since 2022, Eline Arbo is Associate Artistic Director at ITA.
Eline Arbo on Prima Facie
'Suzie Miller knows how to tell an incredibly beautiful and personal story combined with a burning topical issue: modernising our sex offence code. In the Netherlands, too, we lag behind in protecting victims of sexual abuse. Prima Facie is a piece that brilliantly exposes how the age-old legal system is maintained and who is actually protected by our laws.'
Since 2022 Eline Arbo is Associate Artistic Director at ITA. From January ‘23, Arbo will be appointed Ibsen Artist in Residence, an initiative of the Philip Loubser Foundation, which gives directors with an international ambition the opportunity to develop themselves artistically.
In season 23|24 her directions of Prima Facie (Suzie Miller) and The Laws (Connie Palmen) will premiere at ITA and her directions of Penthesileaand The Hourswill be reprised.
Credits
by Suzie Miller
direction Eline Arbo
translation and dramaturgy Anna Sijbrands
scenography Renee Faveere
music Thijs van Vuure
light Varja Klosse
costumes Rebekka Wormann
with thanks to Private Producers Joost and Marcelle Kuiper, Peter Nohlmans
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cast Maria Kraakman