Dramatic practice is central to the delivery of many of our Education and Training programmes. We currently have four productions which can form part of an educational programme.

These productions can work in a number of ways: as an introductory performance to engage people in what a subsequent course has to offer; as the thematic basis for the initial workshops – with the performers interacting with participants in character; or purely as a piece of entertainment.

We currently have three productions available for educational purposes, see the links on the right, and one production, The Bach and Mozart Project, which is touring to theatre venues but which is also suitable for educational purposes. These productions can be presented on their own, with a talk, with a workshop, as an introduction to one of our courses, or in any combination that meets your needs.

If you would like to know more about our educational productions please get in touch with Jeremy Hardingham by calling him on 01223 245 945 or by emailing him at jeremy@escapeartists.co.uk .

Or, if you prefer, you can fill in a few details in our online enquiry form. On receipt of your enquiry will get back to you as soon as possible.

'I started off following my brother’s example / he was wheeling and dealing – gave ev’ryone a first free sample …'

Leaving prison or a Young Offenders Institution is often a confusing and difficult time – life on the outside presents challenges and choices that can make the difference between starting afresh or slipping back into the same old mistakes.

This short, intense performance takes the form of four scenes in which we hear of the lives of four young men with a history of offending, each of them recently released from custody and each with very different perspectives on their future lives outside.

'The truth is, I wanted to start a new life in this country. … Welfare could’ve solved my life but Welfare is no good. It doesn’t let you advance in life. It kills your drive to do positive things. I was forced to live in slums, surrounded by alcohol, drugs and prostitution.'

This intense, funny and powerful story of a Cuban emigrant struggling to survive in Manhattan has been performed a number of times to great acclaim in theatres and prisons in London and Italy.

Trash contains descriptions of sexual crimes.

Trash is performed by Chris Streeks. Chris is an ex-offender who also gives talks to young people aimed at preventing them from getting involved in crime. He has recently written a book about his experiences, 'Letters to a Young Person', which will be published shortly. More about Chris and his work in schools, YOIs and prisons in our Talks and More section.

MOZART

'If I remember correctly, you were saying that our project consisted of the miracle of transcendence.'

BACH

'Indeed. Miracle because science and logic deny that it could happen … Transcendence because each one of us wants to become something other than themselves.'

Unusually for a play set within a secure institution, The Bach & Mozart Project  tackles the harsh realities of incarceration and manages to ring from these struggles a positive, uplifting and transformative experience.

The Bach & Mozart Project is the luminous tale of two inmates in an anonymous institution, attempting to escape their lives.

The play is an emotionally powerful, intellectually challenging, vibrant piece of new writing performed with tremendous physical commitment and intensity of spirit.

'surprising and touching … uncovering our deepest fantasies, our maddest exasperated longings, our tireless search for redemption … this is what theatre is all about'

 Rodolfo Di Giammarco, La Republica

Transformation Workshop

Transformation is a participatory drama workshop. This 2-hour session explores its large theme from two core perspectives which impact upon the company’s work, beginning with an investigation into the implications transformation has for theatre practice – how this is approached in rehearsal through performance, and secondly how the real lives of socially marginalised people can be changed through working in the arts.

'Fifteen years in general. Here. In general security . . . Watching mothers with prams … kids. All that kind of thing.

Police know me, don’t you worry about it!'

Alfred sits on a park bench, watching and talking, about his life, about his past, about kids.

Since this short piece toured prisons and theatres throughout the UK and was made into a short film which won the Audience Choice Award in The Big Issue Film Competition, it has been completely revised and updated.

Dominic Wallis’s poignant play challenges us to acknowledge the prejudices by which we live, creating a fractured picture of what passes for respectability, and questioning deeply held beliefs about insanity, exclusion and evil.

Contains some strong language