From executioner to victim: the story of the lawyer who defended sexual offenders and was raped by her partner

He consent is in full public debate. The kiss that Jennifer Hermoso never asked Luis Rubiales had given around the world and has put the focus back on the sexual violence against women. In the midst of feminist protests in the streets denouncing what happened, the play which has already shaken thousands of viewers in Australia, England and the United States: ‘Prima Facie’.

A one hour and thirty-five minute monologue written by Suzie Miller, awarded the 2023 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. In the adaptation of Juan Carlos Fisherthe actress Vicky Luengo He leaves his own skin on stage so that we feel, in our own flesh, How to experience sexual assault.

‘Prima Facie’ premiered on August 31 at the Teatros del Canal and has already sold out. On stage a single actress playing a lawyer. The light goes out while Tesa comments on her victories in court. She tells how she proceeds like a bird of prey to prey. It is very common to interrogate victims of sexual violence. And it is very common that the victims, prisoners of the shock When reliving what happened, they have some gaps and inaccuracies. And that’s where trial lawyers like her pounce.

In the stalls of the Teatros del Canal you can hear small tremors, sometimes the decibels of very loud music that makes the lawyer lose her hair. As the work progresses, different layers of the story are revealed. matryoshka that Vicky Luengo embodies. The upper layers draw that woman of law, self-confident, unscrupulous defender of sexual offenders. But as the text progresses we enter into her intimacy. We know her humble origins, her family, her house with its doors inside her. And enter the scene your coworkerthe man with whom she is articulating an emotional sexual relationship.

And comes the catharsis after a night of wine, ice cream and vomiting. That day Tesa did not feel the strength to get out of that bed on which the crime occurred. And here the dramaturgy reaches its climax in that Kafkaesque atmosphere, after the earthquake that continues to shake us in the seats. It is then when we put ourselves in her skin, we witness everything that happens to the victim and we attended how the rapist defense lawyer projects what she will have to undergo, now as a victim of sexual assault.

“The sexual assault law turns on the wrong axis”

“I believe that one of the things that the work provides is the possibility for the viewer to see in first person what happens to a body when it is a victim of sexual assault,” says Vicky Luengo. And that is precisely what the work achieves, that we access places we do not usually reach, such as see how interrogations are done or how the victim processes the assault. The work culminates with a dramaturgy that, like a veil, covers 365 degrees in a panoramic view of a topical issue. He also unravels those sexist tricks that mean that the system does not always protect victims of sexual assault:

“The sexual assault law rotates on the wrong axisbecause a woman’s experience of sexual assault does not fit into the system of truth defined by men and, therefore, it cannot be true and there can be no justice because the law has been shaped by generations and generations of men.” , points out the actress.

Vicky Luengo considers herself lucky to have been able to work on such a “delicate” topic with director Juan Carlos Fischer. She tells us that they have taken care of every detail of this monologue that the director adapted, and that with it They are not intended to educate the viewer.but draw your own conclusions.

That spectator who has come to shake in his seat as a victim of a cataclysm also in Australia, the United States or England where the West End audience emphasized that they were leaving the performance shockedand as if they had just received “a master class” in feminism.

Thank you for putting words to which we were once silent.

It arrives in Spain at a very current moment. After that kiss that Jenni Hermoso never asked for from Luis Rubialesthe head of the Spanish Football Federation, who was portrayed as even blaming the player for the scene, which sparked demonstrations throughout the country.

But it is a global problem. According to UN Women, one in three women has suffered, is suffering or will suffer violence throughout their lives.. Some of them have come to see Prima Facie. Vicky Luengo says that after her performance in Avilés a woman of about 70 years old approached her and said, excitedly: “Thank you for putting words to which we were once silent.”

And this is the true tsunami that incites the Canal Theaters and the entire society, that it is already over, that thousands of women are shouting enough, “with consent at the center” recalls the actress. Because “something has to change”.