‘RBG: Of Many, One’ Is A Virtuoso Performance Of Icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg

If you missed seeing RBG: Of Many, One the first time around, this is the chance to catch up on a virtuoso performance by Heather Mitchell playing the inimitable Jewish jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court.

Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller, who also wrote the extraordinary play Prima Facie, imagines the significant moments in Ginsburg’s life, from her childhood to her last days when she died at 87 years of age.

The ‘Notorious RBG’, as she came to be known, had a brilliant mind, topping the classes she attended at school and university, thrashing her male peers.

She recalls how she and eight other successful female candidates were invited by the Dean of Harvard Law, Erwin Griswold, to join him for dinner at his family home. He asked them to explain “Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?” Realising that this was a trick question, she responded, with tongue firmly planted in her cheek, “So I can talk to my husband about his legal studies”. 

There were 550 male students enrolled at the time. And by the way, she graduated joint first in her class.

After battling sexist attitudes which denied her employment, she eventually started working on cases that protected the rights of women, for which she became known. Her secretary pointed out that Ginsburg’s briefs (legal) were peppered with the word “sex” and suggested that “gender” was a more suitable word for give the male justices to read.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter appointed her to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Bill Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court in 1993, where her dissenting opinions indicated how progressive she was.

Heather Mitchell presents Ginsburg’s legal career through Suzie Miller’s brilliant script, which reveals Ginsburg’s love for her family, her husband and children, her sharp mind as she makes her way through the thickets of the law, and her great if subtle sense of humour. 

Especially amusing are Mitchell’s brilliant depictions of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, which had the audience roaring with laughter at the former, and clapping in agreement with the latter.

The soundtrack to the play are operative arias that Ginsburg loved, and much depends on the lighting technician to create the atmosphere of the different settings of Ginsburg’s life.  

Priscilla Jackson brings Suzie Miller’s script to life as she applies her directorial talents to the staging of this remarkable play, and together – writer, actress, director – present a production that, in my opinion, is one the best I have seen in my decades of attending the theatre.

Find out more about RBG: Of Many, One by the Sydney Theatre Company here.