Theatre production at HMYOI Polmont

Glas(s) Performance (UK producers of award-winning young people’s company Junction 25) has worked with young men in HMYOI Polmont to create an original theatre piece titled Motion, which explores questions of identity and inheritance and what it means to be a young man in contemporary Scotland today.

The Sunday Post’s Megan McEachern visited the prison to see the performance and speak to some of the young men performing. She writes:

“People see tattoos, scars and they automatically think you’re a thug,” says Ben [participant].

“I know I’ve been a dafty in the past, but I know how to use my time constructively now. Doing things like this, playing guitar, getting fit.

“I just want to be succeeding in life.”

And, for a group of dramaturgically inexperienced young men to create an eloquent, insightful and humorous performance from scratch and work successfully with two revered theatre companies? They certainly seem on the right path currently to do just as Ben hopes.

As I handed in my visitor’s pass, left the building, and once again looked up at HMYOI Polmont, I knew I had seen, felt and experienced Motion, in far more ways than one.”

Click here to read the full article

Image courtesy of Paul Birrell, Polmont Young Offenders Institution, CC BY-SA 2.0