Articles about Playback Theatre by Company members...



A Performance at Channings Wood Prison


by Tig Land


I was invited as a guest conductor into Channings Wood, a top security male prison in Devon. The brief was to work for 90 minutes with a group of around 20 inmates serving life sentences for various crimes. Two challenges faced me. The first to prepare the group of performers and the second the actual performance.

My first job was to allow space for the players to air their fears and thoughts about what might happen during the performance. Concerns as to the kind of stories the men may tell were uppermost. Would they use the opportunity to re-tell the crimes they had committed? Would the women be chosen to play their victims? How would they respond to outsiders? As the conductor it was crucial to be sensitive to these anxieties and especially the fears of the three women in the line up. As a woman myself, I did not know how they would respond to me either. I had not been inside a male prison before, but my previous experience of working with young men had been very positive.

By way of reassurance I reminded them of how often the men would have told the story of their convictions and that hopefully they would take the opportunity to tell something else. If not, it was my responsibility as the conductor of the whole process to handle that carefully. My thoughts in preparing myself for the performance were I would need to find a way to bridge the gap between them and us the 'outsiders' - and fast. My concern was that they should not feel patronised by any-thing the players or I did.

The first theme that surfaced was that of individuals nicknames or 'handles', some given from childhood but many that had been gained since being in prison. What emerged was that one of them had a great deal of knowledge about the meaning and origin of peoples and place names and was able to demystify some of their 'handles' for them.

I made the link between names and the labels that we are given and give others, in order to make sense of and identify one another. I asked the audience about the labels they had experienced and the effect it may have had on them in their lives before or during prison. One man spoke of the status he received when other prisoners found out he was a 'lifer'. The assumption had been he was not, due to his "quiet ways". Profound statements were made by some around the differences and similarities between prison and the "outside world". One inmate stated "Wasn't prison simply a microcosm of the world beyond the walls?"

I asked what they thought these differences and similarities were between the two communities. One man spoke of the introverted and extroverted behaviour he experienced from other inmates. Some gave examples of how a few men cannot wait for their cell doors to be opened and how others "prefer their own Company". The men shared stories of the younger prisoners and were amused at their bravado. "But would they be like this on the outside?" some questioned. We played back a variety of stories around these issues. Following the theme of "inside and outside", I directly included their prison warder and the resident psychologist. As these women were part of both the inside and outside worlds, I was interested in how they juggled this. This created an opportunity for the men to experience them in a different role other than how they perceived them on a daily basis.

The audience of men was clearly moved by the player's creativity and empathy. They in turn were frank, responsive and honest in their communication. Much laughter and nods of acknowledgement took place between them. Knowing looks were exchanged when moments "hit the spot" for them as a group of men living in an extraordinary community together.

The performance allowed a forum for connection and differences to be explored. It also allowed for individuals to challenge their own judgements and assumptions about others. It briefly offered a different way for the men to explore their own attitude to prison life and to hear how others were experiencing it.

© Tig Land. April 2000