New play explores modern prisons and justice

A new play by an arts organisation that works with prisoners and staff in UK prisons will explore society's relationship to punishment.

Punishment Acts is set in a fictional prison and will ask audiences in Stoke-on-Trent to reflect on their beliefs about punishment and consider whether there are other ways to achieve justice.

It will be performed at B arts at their site in Hartshill Road from 9 to 17 April. The cast includes a mix of professional actors, people who will be making their first stage appearance and some who have previously been in custody.

The play was made by prison arts specialists Rideout, along with B arts and members of community interest company Expert Citizens.

Drawing on ideas discussed by French philosopher Michel Foucault in his work Discipline and Punish, the play explores the development of the modern prison.

Rideout director Saul Hewish, who is also a teaching fellow in theatre at the University of Warwick, is a leading practitioner in using drama and theatre with prisoners.

Mr Hewish said: "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'?"

He added: "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."

Rideout has also been working with the Men Who Make Things group, run by B arts. Members have helped to 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 for men who have experience of poor mental health.

The play is co-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England.

It is part of a wider research programme called Staging Justice led by Dr Sarah Bartley from London's Central School of Speech and Drama.

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