Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Winchester
Process and Performance of The Convict's Opera
This project aimed to build on the work of the previous, extending the research to engagement with imagined characters and to audience responses to the play. A Prison Service Directive was issued in 2008 stating that only those activities deemed ‘appropriate’ or ‘acceptable’ to the general public should be undertaken by prisoners serving a custodial sentence.
Research questions:
Might a focus on a process of identification with characters in a play help imprisoned performers develop empathetic views toward imagined characters whose lives resonate with their own?
After seeing the work how does an audience respond to the implications of the Government Directive?
The choice of play was crucial to the research methodology and the successful realisation of this project. McKean edited the play to focus on key elements of the narrative structure and particular characters whose experiences resonated with those of the participating prisoners. McKean interviewed the prisoners and led discussions with the whole cast to discuss the ways they responded to their characters and reflected on the character’s actions in relation to their own life experiences. A questionnaire was used to gauge the ways in which audiences responded to the themes of crime and punishment in the play and how appropriate the audience thought the work was for prisoners serving a sentence.
In-process discussions with prisoners revealed the opportunity to think about how the lives of people from a different historical context were framed and shaped by crime and subsequent punishment offered an opportunity for self-reflection. Prisoners stated that the role they played offered them distance from their ‘real’ self but afforded them opportunities to compare past and present experiences.
The audience response to the work opposed the Government directive and the data might provide interesting and unlooked-for social ‘support’ for this kind of work. Audience members included prison staff, staff from the probation service and related areas of work within the criminal justice system.
