Last night, Edinburgh theatregoers were treated to six short plays by inmates from HMP Castle Huntly in Dundee.
The performance at the Traverse Theatre was the culmination of the Open Write project, a collaboration between Motherwell College, the Scottish Prison Service and the Traverse's learning department.
Following on from the theatre's successful work at Polmont young offenders institution in 2008, this innovative project aimed to engage with young male prisoners by giving them a real-life experience of what it feels like to be a playwright.
Open Write is part of the Inspiring Change project, which aims to use the arts to stimulate engagement with learning and improve literacy skills among offenders, as part of the process of rehabilitiation.
The plays, written by five prisoners over six weeks, were bold and raw, complete with colourful language and plenty of action. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the theme of criminality rested firmly at the centre of most of the work, but there was no absence of imagination. In one hour we met junkies, sex addicts and child molesters and travelled through Glasgow, via a west coast campsite, to a brief stint on the run in Australia.
Playwright Alan Wilkins, who worked with the writers throughout the process, said he was keen to encourage participants in the project to think beyond the confines of a prison cell. "The only rules were: you don't write about your own offences and you don't write anything to offend prison staff or fellow inmates," said Wilkins.
Noelle O'Donoghue, head of learning at the Traverse, said the age and experience of the young men might explain the largely criminal tone of their work, in that they were "not at the stage to evaluate their crimes".
However, as Wilkins pointed out, none of the plays sought to glorify their subject matter needlessly.
It is interesting, then, that at the first performance, at HMP Castle Huntly on Monday, prisoners, staff and guests were said to have roared with laughter. Last night, however, the audience seemed more subdued, aware that the project itself was of a more serious nature - and with a serious aim.
Vikki Jones is a freelance writer and a blogger for the Leither Magazine.
