What is life like for people living behind bars? Each year, between 2016 and 2019, Sam Rowe, Creative Expressions Coordinator of Bethany Christian Trust, was invited to devise a piece of drama with inmates of Scotland’s highest security prison, HMP Shotts. Here he describes the project that led to the creation of Insiders, a powerful insight into prison life.
The sense of joy, warmth and achievement was palpable
In the first sessions, a dozen or so men would arrive, nervous about what lay ahead. Over the weeks – through a crash course in drama skills, scriptwriting, singing and rehearsals – we grew together. Each production, after it had been performed to peers and invited guests, would end with our arms around each other’s shoulders and the audience on their feet… As the final notes rang out, the sense of joy, warmth and achievement was palpable. Of course, some of the guys would laugh that they’d hated every minute of it and they were just glad it was over, but for most it was a rare moment that allowed them to be the best of who they could be.
Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit. Going into the prison was going to be impossible, so I spoke with the chaplain who coordinated the project about what we might do instead. We decided that we would write a play with participants remotely, and then have it performed by professional actors (and me) over a live feed.
First, we met over video with nine guys who had agreed to take part and heard about their lives in lockdown. Locked alone in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, these men were living through an even more heightened level of restriction and isolation than most of us. From their stories, I devised a basic plot outline that expressed some of their challenges, as well as three character outlines for them to work with.
I then began contacting them each week with a question for them to respond to. The first being: ‘What do these characters have in the cells, and what do those things mean to them?’ The second: ‘How do they pass their day? What do the characters think of each other?’ and so on. From these responses, the other actors and I improvised the script.
In November 2020, as Nicola Sturgeon extended a soft lockdown by one more week, we performed the piece over Bethany Christian Trust’s social media channels. Nearly 500 people watched. The response was fantastic. People were not only finding the piece heartwarming and funny, but deeply moving too. I was proud of what we had made, and didn’t want that to be the end.
By the end of 2022, lockdown had finally lifted enough to organise a full theatrical tour of the Scottish prison system, from Inverness to Dumfries. We updated the text for a post-pandemic landscape, as no one wanted to dwell on lockdowns anymore. It was obviously nerve-racking, hoping that our audiences were going to buy into the piece. After our first performance, a guy came up to me and asked, ‘So how many of your 18 years did you end up serving mate?’ – encouragement enough that we were doing something right!
Over four weeks we performed to over 400 prisoners, with 80% of returned feedback forms giving the piece five stars. In the comments, men wrote about how the piece gave them solace that they were not alone in their struggles, and that they hoped it would build empathy for the struggles of others. They also loved the humour, the authenticity of the details and wonderful songs, written and performed by Michael McMillan, that accompany the drama. Many also said how important they felt it was that the play reach the wider public. This is what we intend to do by bringing the play to The Fringe this year.
I once heard a prison reform campaigner say that the public gains most of their knowledge about prisons from journalists, politicians and screenwriters who have no experience of actually being in prison. Insiders presents something far closer to the truth. Shunning sensationalism, the piece explores the great searching questions that many may find themselves asking when faced with such curtailed circumstances and the guilt of their own actions.
It is because of this that I learn so much about failure and resilience, kindness and cruelty, hope and disappointment, riches and poverty, joy and sorrow with every project that I lead. I believe it is essential to listen to prisoners’ voices because of what they teach us about our society, ourselves, and the meaning of existence.
