Escape Artists is an established performing arts company, which began life as a drama group founded by a life sentence prisoner in HMP Wayland in 1990. Since the company?s inception in 1995, it has gradually become established in the professional arena. In the meantime, its commitment to prisoners, ex-prisoners and other socially excluded groups remains undiminished, writes Paul Malcolm. HMP Chelmsford is an overcrowded local prison. The prisoners it houses are, in the majority, young men awaiting sentence and transfer to training prisons. Recently, the prison has suffered an increase in racist graffiti and a heightening of racial tension. In a novel approach to combating this, the prison authorities commissioned Escape Artists to run a theatre workshop within the institution. The collective and collaborative nature of theatre presents challenges to orthodox prison behaviour. The prison system tends to promote an individualistic, guarded mode of existence within which prisoners often adopt a prison persona ? a protective mask behind which genuine emotions and attitudes are often hidden. In addition, inter-prisoner relationships are often conducted on a superficial level. Status also impacts profoundly on this process. Prison is hierarchical in nature and this is reflected in notions of status imbued within prison sub-culture. Prisoners can often be wary of outside groups, suspicious of the motives or the fact that they might be exploitative. Due to Escape Artists antecedents ? and the fact that an ex-prisoner was present as a workshop leader ? trust was established quite quickly and these issues were addressed. The workshops began with two introductory sessions, after which, prisoners who had enjoyed the experience could participate in a week of workshops culminating in a devised performance on the theme of prejudice. Of the prisoners who attended the introductory sessions, none had ever visited a theatre, let alone participated in a drama workshop. Through a sequence of games and exercises working on issues of trust and status, the groups each became a cohesive, effective whole. In several cases, reluctant participation was transformed into committed enthusiasm. A number of prisoners expressed the feeling that, in addition to the ?interesting and fun? aspects of involvement, their relationships with others on the workshop had strengthened in ways they would never have anticipated. 
The two groups amalgamated for the week workshop. Tackling such a volatile issue as prejudice was potentially problematic. However, participants from a broad range of ethnic and national backgrounds explored the subject with a high level of insight and maturity. The devised piece was eventually performed to an enthusiastic response from an audience of prisoners and prison staff. While the participants were saddened that the experience was at an end, each declared that they had never expected to enjoy such a positive experience while in prison. On several levels, all expressed a sense of liberation. Paul Malcolm is a founder member of Escape Artists. t: 01223 245945; e: houdini@escapeartists.co.uk; w: http://www.escapeartists.co.uk
Published: 03-11-2003