Meet the Makers: Playwright Suzie Miller on Writing Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the Stage

Published: Wednesday 8 April 2026

 

As RBG: Of Many, One makes its New Zealand debut, we speak with playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) about bringing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the stage—exploring her humanity, her legal brilliance, and why her ideas about equality and democracy remain urgently relevant today.

 

Photo of Suzie Miller credit: Sarah Hadley

 

Please introduce yourself. What is your role in this production?

My name is Suzie Miller and I am the Playwright of RBG: Of Many, One

 

What first drew you to Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the subject of a one-woman play, and when did you know her story needed to be told in this theatrical form?

Throughout law school I was always obsessed with RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg). She was an icon of feminism and equal rights. Her ideas were usually twenty years ahead of everyone elses’, and her legal mind was phenomenal. I often wondered what she must have felt in terms of frustration with the fact that she was of an age where her brilliance was held back by the strictures of the day, by the status quo and the pushback from her male counterparts. I noted that she didn’t get ‘angry’ so much as she was strategic about how to effect real change, how to influence by showing what the way forward was. She was the ultimate trailblazer.

 

How would you describe Ruth Bader Ginsburg in five adjectives?

Brilliant; Passionate; Sharp; Inspirational; Ironic.

 

RBG is a global icon, but also a deeply human figure. How did you navigate balancing her public legacy with her private complexities when shaping the narrative?

That was the most beautiful part about her as a character – the deeply human nature of who she was. Her private complexities were integrally linked to her beliefs and I wanted to show that a woman who was so ahead of her time, so thoughtful about the way forward, so brilliant in her arguments, so clarified in her steps toward equality, so sure that incremental steps create great change – was also impatient to see the world change, to see her vision come to life, to call out inequality and to influence thinking.

 

Your writing often explores justice, power, and the lived experiences of women. How does RBG: Of Many, One continue or evolve these themes in your body of work?

RBG lived a life that today we would consider that of a contemporary working woman, yet in her era it was groundbreaking and controversial. When she graduated law school at top of the year she could not get a job because it was unseemly to hire women lawyers! She had so little power despite her genius brain, yet somehow she found a way through. I was keen to show and celebrate the way she did that. How she saw the big picture changing for women and living that by example – what hurdles she faced both personally and professionally – and also to celebrate the great partnership she had with her husband Marty – her husband believed in equality for women, believed in her, and supported her with more than words (although they were important too) but with his domestica action of taking half the load at home.

 

In the process of developing the script, were there any discoveries about RBG that surprised you or shifted your perspective on her legacy?

In reading her decisions I was reminded of how clever she was, how she was ‘sending letters to those yet to be born’ and was very much in touch with a flexibility of thinking that brought into play ways of interpreting the constitution in the US that allowed it to provide for a better social world.

I was also deeply moved by her love of her mother and her husband – such intimately emotional relationships. She was very loved, and she found her person in Marty.

 

The play spans different eras of Ginsburg’s life—from her early years to her time on the Supreme Court. Which moments were the most important for you to highlight, and why?

Each of the scenes add up to a sense of how and why she made certain decisions. I also needed the audience to know who she was, because non-US audiences might not be familiar with her beyond the icon she became. I needed to contextualise her later decisions and place them deeply within a value framework that I loved about her.

 

The play has resonated strongly with audiences. Why do you think RBG’s story continues to feel urgent and relevant in today’s social and political climate?

More than ever an understanding of the concepts of democracy is needed. The pillars of democracy rest on a foundation that our governments are expected to be accountable to the people, that they are expected to abide by the Rule of Law – Ie: that no one is above the law - are fundamental a democratic nation. If you mess with the separation of the courts from the elected officials then you are messing with the essence of democracy itself. RBG talked about such things with such clarity and reminds us all, in our own day and age, that without abiding by democratic principles a nation descends into dictatorship. Democracy provides us with a voice and due process – this means our leaders must abide by the laws and processes themselves. The courts are the checks and balances for that accountability, without these two systems operating without influence of the other there is no democracy.

 

What do you hope New Zealand audiences will take away from this production?

The joy of a woman who understood fundamental concepts around equality on lines of race and gender, who understood democratic principles and argued to maintain them. And in watching her do this, we see how relevant her arguments from years ago are completely relevant today. She also shows us how a woman, a wife, a mother and a working lawyer coexist in a single woman with all the messiness, anxieties, pushback and social difficulties that come alongside it – while at the same time templating what is needed from her husband to allow her to do it.

 

Looking ahead, how do you hope RBG: Of Many, One contributes to ongoing conversations about equality, dissent, and the role of individuals in shaping democracy?

If ever we need some guidance on how to maintain values and ideas, how to communicate with each other and hear different viewpoints it is NOW. The play celebrates what is possible and how one person’s actions can change the world. Each of us in our own way can offer what we can do to make this world a better and more equal place, can contribute to the maintenance of a working democracy in ways that are personal and unique to ourselves. The first step is to remember that we believe in principles and that such principles are sustained by actions. 

 

RBG: Of Many, One opens at the ASB Waterfront Theatre on Wed 20 May and runs until Sun 7 Jun.