Chapter 1 of 22 · 3'00"
She waits through the charged quiet, then takes the witness looking almost lost. Pages turn, questions repeat, and she thanks him for clarifying. The real aim sits in one order to herself: "Let the witness talk, over talk."
❝ Monologue · 10 lines Win the point, then play it cool
❝ Monologue · 8 lines She nods and lets him dig deeper
In a courtroom, a barrister rises after an application is granted. The judge looks at her, and one line follows: "It's your witness, Ms Ensler." She buttons her jacket and cross-examines as if she is slow. She flicks through pages, repeats questions, and lets the witness relax. He talks too much, contradicts himself, and keeps explaining while she nods.
The silence is the point. She treats it as "the calm before," the wait that measures her skill. The application is granted. Her client feels "the shift" without knowing she has "won a point." The room gives her a thrill, and she orders herself to "Play it cool." The clumsiness is staged. Pages get flicked. Questions get repeated. She lets him think she is "a bit slow," and she clocks the line she wanted: "This one doesn't seem to know what she's doing." His shoulders drop. A prosecution snicker and her client shifting in the dock both count as "Good." He is no longer vigilant. The judge stays expressionless, yet one line insists "this judge has seen me before, seen the likes of me." She lets him "clarify," then nods while "he digs himself in deeper." "that's a bit clearer now, but..." draws another fact, and he volunteers more. A finger rises to the prosecutor's forehead.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“He doesn't quite know that I've won a point, but he feels the shift, likes it.”
It separates a technical win from the body's sense that the room has already tilted.
Neutral
“My client hates the witness, but for me, the witness is just the witness.”
The repeated witness strips away her client's hatred and leaves only the job.
Neutral
“Let the witness talk, over talk. Let him 'clarify'. Good.”
Three short orders turn a polite request to explain into a trap.
Informal
“'This one must be straight out of uni or something. She's not that good.'”
No swear is required; a guess about her degree does the insult.
Informal
“Nodding. I'm nodding, while he digs himself in deeper.”
The repeated nod is the tactic: silence that keeps him digging.
literary
Play it cool! Yeah? Cool! Voice, measured and confident. Play it. Play it, it's yours. You're holding it in the pa-a-a-a-alm of your hand. Play with it! Stretch it out, it's yours. Cross-examination. It's the best part. All instinct. Ask the question. Repeat the answer, repeat it again. Watch the witness's face, let him think I am getting mixed up, that I'm a bit slow in understanding what happened. Flick through some pages, let him think I have lost my way.
Oh, ho-ho. This... It relaxes him. He's got the upper hand. He is now not careful, not afraid, no longer vigilant. He says something inconsistent. I let him explain it to me. Nodding. I'm nodding, while he digs himself in deeper. 'OK,' I say, 'that's a bit clearer now, but...' He volunteers more information. I see the prosecutor put a finger to his own forehead.
National Theatre Live: Prima Facie: your progress
Chapter 1 of 22 · about 73 min to go
Up next · 02blood in the waterThe scene: Ensler Corners the WitnessShe wants him relaxed and careless. She flicks through pages so he will "think I have lost my way," lets him "over talk" and "clarify," and waits until he is "no longer vigilant." Then he "says something inconsistent" and "digs himself in deeper."
The courtroom is "charged," and she feels "the thrill of this" once the application is granted. "Play it cool" keeps that excitement out of her voice. She still wants the moment "in the pa-a-a-a-alm of your hand," not already won.
She has been acting lost, flicking pages until the other side laughs. "A snicker from the prosecution counsel" means the act is working, so her answer is "Good. Good. Very good." Her client shifting uncomfortably in the dock gets the same "Good," because worry on her side relaxes the witness.
No. "She's not that good" and "straight out of uni" are the opinion she wants him to hold. She has already "won a point," the judge has "seen the likes of me," and she calls this "the best part. All instinct." The upper hand he feels is the one she gave him.
She lets him explain the slip, says "that's a bit clearer now, but...", and he "volunteers more information." She then sees the prosecutor "put a finger to his own forehead," the look of a lawyer whose witness will not stop.
