Burnt out from touring her solo show Hanna, Cassandra Woodhouse sought out the dark confines of a movie theatre for some time out.
Showing was National Theatre Live’s Prima Facie — a one woman play written by Australian playwright Suzie Miller telling the story of top criminal defence lawyer Tessa being forced to confront the system she believes and has been working in all her life.
"I knew nothing about it only that it was a solo show so I thought I’d go along and watch it as a bit of a respite."
At that point Woodhouse had thought she would never do a solo show again, as Hanna had drained her resources, physically and emotionally.
"I miss having someone up there with me, and it was a lot of work."
But she came out of the movie theatre fired up and immediately applied for the rights to stage Prima Facie.
"It just felt bigger than me. It just spoke to something that has just been silenced in our culture. We have such an underbelly of sexual harm in New Zealand and to see a piece of art really just go there, it just moved me so much.
So much so, that while waiting to hear if she got the rights, Woodhouse flew to New York to watch the production on Broadway starring Jodi Comer. She paid $1000 for the ticket to see it as she wanted to feel the energy in the room from an audience’s perspective.
"It was the same week Jodi Comer won the Tony Award for it. I was there when all that happened, so that was exciting."
Seeing it reinforced how it could give a voice for so many people who are silenced.
"It’s a piece of work that connects people over such a sadly common human experience."
After getting the rights to stage the play in New Zealand, Woodhouse invited Michael Hurst, husband of Jennifer Ward-Lealand who directed Hanna, on to direct the play. Having someone equally passionate about theatre being accessible to everyone and getting it out to the regions was important.
"Michael is really the master of that, of stripping back storytelling so that it can be done anywhere. A show like this the story is everything, so the theatrics are lovely, but the story is where the heart of it is, so I knew he would be the best person for that, and to have a male director directing this piece, there was actually quite a lot of catharsis in that too because we got each other’s opinions, we spoke so much about the content."
There was never any question about Woodhouse taking the leading role.
"I just had to strap on my bootstraps and go, this has really touched you and been put on your heart for a reason and now you’ve got to say yes to it. It’s always about something bigger than me personally so that’s really what has driven the whole project from the start."
"Everything else you see was done by me, pretty much, and the marketing. It’s a one-woman show on stage, but it’s also a one-woman stage off stage, and that’s the part that most people don’t see, but, again, again, when I’m like, oh, it’s too hard, it all comes back to you’ve been a voice for something, and if you can have a bit of the courage and determination and strength that so many survivors have had to find within themselves, then this is nothing, and so that gives me a lot of energy."
The show debuted at the Pump Theatre in Takapuna Auckland in 2022 and then toured mostly around the North Island.
"It’s been a journey. At every show I did I met with so many people sharing their stories, it’s a heavy, heavy subject but what I really saw too was just the catharsis that happens when we share our stories, it’s really powerful.
"It exposes our, you know, it also exposes our legal system and the holes in it and how we’re taught to believe in it, so wholeheartedly, but like any system, it’s got its flaws."
At many of those shows she held question and answer sessions or held panels with lawyers, police detectives and sexual harm organisations speaking. They have also taken the production into schools.
"We’ve made it free for high school students, we’ve collaborated with sexual harm organisations in local communities, we’ve done so much advocacy around it, and to not have any support from our funding bodies, it just blows my mind."
Her hope is that like domestic violence and mental health, sexual harm will become talked about rather than being brushed under the carpet.
"The more we talk about it the less power it actually has. We think that not talking about it is protecting us, but it actually only protects the perpetrators and it allows harm to persist."
"To go from a space like that to Mussel Inn (Golden Bay), is gonna be quite the ride. I’m really excited, just because of the impact. I love meeting the audiences afterwards, and hearing their reactions, and hearing what they think, their stories, and connecting with them."
While she has been playing Tessa for three years now, she has never tired of her, concentrating on the story and its ability to give her an outlet to speak about sexual harm.
"I try and put any, um, you know, heartbreak I’ve got about what I’ve read, or what I’ve heard, and I actually just try and put it back into the story the next night and let it infuse the performance more, then that gives me an outlet to say something about it."
The hardest thing though in each show is not to play the end too soon. At the start of the play Tessa is a successful lawyer, passionate about the law so Woodhouse has to portray the character as if she does not know what is coming next.
"That’s been a lot of Michael’s direction. That’s the part when you start advocating so much around these things you become such a voice for that part of it, but when I’m doing the play itself, I’ve got to remember they need this whole story first."
But she admits she is only human and the stories she hears from the audience do impact on her. She does not like to discuss if she has experienced sexual harm because she wants to concentrate on the story and character.
"We’re not meant to not feel them, so I try and just honour myself, and say well, it’s natural that you’re having this reaction, because these things are not easy to hear, but I also feel like, if I can help that one person not feel alone with it, then that’s, then I’ve done something good. We’re not meant to carry these things alone and when we can share our stories, whether it’s on a stage, or just with each other, a weight gets lifted a little bit off them, and that’s a gift we can give other people, so I try and see it like that."
The responses she has had so far have driven Woodhouse to produce a book to accompany the southern shows which she sees as a resource pulling together everything she has learned about the issues over the past few years through the organisations she has worked with as well as survivor stories.
Concerned she would not have the time for advocacy in each town during the tour, she hopes the book will help continue the conversation.
"I’m just proud to continue carrying the torch as long as I can."
With the upcoming month on the road for the tour she knows she will be energised each time she visits a new place and meets the people running the small halls and theatres.
"I’m so inspired by the people keeping arts alive in their communities."
The whole experience with Prima Facie has confirmed the direction of her work.
"The seed has been planted to continue to tell stories that have this social impact and connect people in this way. I would find it very hard to do something now that didn’t have that kind of impact. Sometimes it scares me I think ‘oh my God, am I ever gonna find anything again that has this’, but I gotta trust that the same whisper that put this on my heart will put something else on there as well."
TO SEE
Prima Facie, Oamaru, March 15, 7.30 pm, Oamaru Opera House; Arrowtown, March 17, 7pm, Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall; Cromwell, March 18, 7.30pm, Bannockburn Hall; Te Anau, March 19, 7.30pm, Fiordland Community Events Centre; Hawea, March 20, 7.30pm, Lake Hawea Community Centre.
