Punishment Acts: Tales of Retribution, Reparation and Redemption
Punishment Acts: Tales of Retribution, Reparation and Redemption
An original theatre co-production by between Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) and B arts, working in association with Expert Citizens.
Performances at B arts, 72 Hartshill Road, ST4 7RB
Wednesday 9th April 2025 - Thursday 17th April 2025
7.30pm
Nights are long in prison. The minutes drag by for both the watched and the watchers like a dirty mop on a dirty floor. Tales are told, secrets shared, rumours whispering under the doors, down the pipes, leaking through the locks. In that hinterland between sleep and wakefulness, the timeline of history buckles and twists as the past and present begin their endless dance: the smell of a vape, the splash of the slop out, the taste of gruel, the ache of the treadwheel, the creak of the hangman’s rope.
The nights are long in prison for those who are out of time. How long is long enough?
Punishment Acts draws on the ideas of people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage including custody. Made following a series of workshops with Expert Citizens exploring themes in Discipline and Punish by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, it will ask audiences to reflect on beliefs about punishment and consider whether there are other ways to achieve 'justice'.
Suitable for audiences 15+
Tickets are priced £10 and £6.50 and are available for booking here
Punishment Acts is a co production between Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) and B arts, working in association with Expert Citizens.
Rideout is an arts organisation that specialises in work in the criminal justice system, especially prison. Established in 1999, the company has a reputation for facilitating exciting and innovative arts projects that enable people in prison to explore new perspectives on themselves and others, alongside public facing work that challenges audiences to consider the form and fuction of prison.
Expert Citizens is a Community Interest Company led by people with lived experience of homelessness, mental ill-health, addiction, domestic abuse, poverty or histories of offending behaviour. They specialise both in supporting others with lived experience alongside partnership work with statutory and voluntary sector organisations across Stoke-on-Trent to help reduce barriers to participation.
Punishment Acts builds on a successful previous partnership between the three organisations that began originally with the show, In Plain Sight, in February 2020.