Prima Facie (NHB Modern Plays) by Suzie Miller

Author:Suzie Miller [Bartlett, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788505246
Publisher: Nick Hern Books
Published: 2022-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Scene Eight

Crown Court

NOW

This. Is. Me.

Outside looking in.

Watching myself.

Through the doors.

Sound of my heels on the floor.

The Inner London Crown Court.

This is me,

moving through the security system.

Detached.

Objective.

This is me,

bag on the belt.

This time,

no barrister’s ID,

no easy pass.

Just me.

Walking through the metal detector.

Alarm rings,

take off my shoes,

back through again.

This is me being swiped by the hand-held metal detector.

This time I’m, I’m… [no one.]

Over there I can see

black robes swishing,

horsehair wigs leaning in toward each other.

Paper,

folders,

confident chatter.

Did one of them see me?

Oh God.

Head down.

This is me picking up my bag, mobile,

walking to the lifts with the witness support service.

This is me, Tessa Ensler, without my barrister robe.

No wig.

This is what it feels like.

Same court,

no armour.

This is me digging my nails into my wrist.

This is me walking into the lift,

look at the floor.

Doors shut.

Ding.

Solicitors, barristers, police.

Exit, enter, exit,

ding.

This is me walking out of the lift,

into the meeting room.

This is me sitting in a small windowless room.

Plastic white table,

waiting.

Waiting.

I’ve been waiting for seven hundred and eighty-two days, and now today is the day.

Three years at university,

one year of bar school, and

seven years of practice.

I have always believed.

Now I need to know that I was not mistaken.

That I can still believe in you.

Can trust,

can still hold on to you.

Believe you’ll show me

that

before the law there is justice.

But, I’m here and –

You look so different from this end.

From this seat in this windowless room.

The prosecutor, Richard,

he comes into the room.

Richard Lawson.

I’m lucky

he’s well respected,

knows the law.

Now we’re here

at the London Inner City Court,

Richard in his silk robes, his wig,

ready to run the case.

Today is seven hundred and eighty-two days since that first day at [the police station].

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