Introduction

Abstract

The third day of our project began much like the previous ones. Buzz at the gate and announce we were here for ‘Shakespeare’, wait for the magnetic lock to be released, and then walk a hundred metres down a gap in multiple rolls of razor-wire to reception. After having our fingerprints scanned and filling in visitor passes, we put our shoes and loose belongings, scripts, pens (no phones, food or liquids allowed) on the x-ray belt, and walked in turn through the metal detector, then the man-traps, where we once again had our fingerprints scanned. There was no random drug test today, and the dogs had not been brought in to sniff us, as they occasionally were. The four of us chatted until a guard arrived to let us through one heavy steel door into a tiny passage. Off to one side was the visitors’ side for non-contact visits, open booths where they could talk through glass to a prisoner on the other side. But we were destined for the space that lay beyond the second heavy steel door, the contact visits area. Most of the shed-like space was occupied by metal tables, each with four chairs attached, and each structure bolted to the concrete floor. One chair at each table was painted red, which is where a prisoner would sit during his visit. But at one end was a relatively open space, the children’s play area, with murals on one wall. There was a toilet at one end, but prisoners were not allowed to use it. This space would be our laboratory, our rehearsal room, and eventually our stage. For a few hours a day, a few days a week, it became a space unlike any other in the prison.