More than theatre

Anna Chojnacka

Abstract

On 22-23 November 2018 at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the international conference “Theatre and Drama in Prison. Prison in Theatre and Drama” took place. The subject of theatre work in prison dominated the proceedings, with practitioners: artists, therapists, educators, officers of the prison service, as speakers and participants of the discussion. They talked about their own experience and about organizational and financial limitations. Their reflections were of sociological and psychological nature. Participation in the theatre has a significant impact on prison inmates, but also on viewers from outside. We heard about projects carried out in the United States, Scotland, South Africa and Poland (Warsaw, Wrocław, Grudziądz, Opole Lubelskie, Gębarzewo, Poznań, Kalisz, Kwidzyn, Sztum, Nisko, Nowogard, Gliwice, and Stargard). We became familiar with the programmes and methods, including: working with masks, Popular Participatory Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, Forum Theatre and “Shakespeare Behind Bars” (the film Shakespeare Behind Bars, being a record of work on The Tempest at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Kentucky). Some projects are targeted at a specific group of prisoners, such as mothers serving sentences. Music can also be the instrument of rehabilitation, and a nursing home can be the place of isolation. Several papers addressed imprisonment in drama and on stage (Lorca’s House of Bernarda Alba, Cossa’s Bunia and Gris de ausencia, and Giselle in the interpretation of Mats Ek). The last paper focused on the restriction of the artist's freedom on the example of the fate of the Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. The conference first of all showed that theatre in prison is of great social importance.