New play – PUNISHMENT ACTS: Tales of Retribution, Reparation and Redemption
Punishment is a new play made by prison arts specialists Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) in co-production with B.ARTS, co-created with members of Expert Citizens.
Set in a fictional prison, the play tells a series of stories that attempt to unpick our relationship to punishment. In particular the play explores the development of what we now understand as the modern prison and draws on ideas discussed in Discipline and Punish by the French philosopher Michel Foucault.
The cast for the show is a mix of professional actors and people for whom this is their first time on stage.
The play is co-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England and is part of a wider research programme called Staging Justice led by Dr Sarah Bartley from London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.
Rideout Director, Saul Hewish says:”I have worked using drama and theatre in prisons for nearly 40 years and the system is in as worse a state that I have ever seen it. This play sets out to get audiences to think about punishment and how we use it. Is prison always the answer or might there be other ways to help victims achieve ‘justice’? We have been making the play with people who have lived experience of multiple disadvantage including custody, some of whom have never done drama before. Their ideas have very much informed the content of the play.”
As well as working with members of Expert Citizens, Rideout has also been working the Men Who Make Things group, run by B.ARTS. This group has been involved in helping build the set and a mini museum of instruments of punishment which audience members can see before and after the show. Men Who Make Things is a group especially for men who have experience of poor mental health.
Rebecca Frankenberg, Senior Creative Producer for B.ARTS said: “It’s a privilege to be part of a co-production like Punishment Acts. Rideout make work that invites audiences to explore fundamental questions about who we are as a society and who we want to be, in a very straightforward and human way. This includes putting stories and perspectives that you don’t usually get to hear at the centre of their shows.”
PUNISHMENT ACTS: Tales of Retribution, Reparation and Redemption will take place at B.ARTS 72, Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 7RB, from Wednesday 9 10 17 April.
