The entrance to HMP Young Offenders Institution, Feltham.

This week I started a new project at HMP Feltham Young Offenders Institution, writes Martin O’Brien.

It’s a different type of project for me and for Ten Ten.  Although we’ve done quite a lot of work in prisons over the past  two years, particularly at Feltham under the watchful eye of prison chaplain Fr Roger, this particular project presents a couple of fundamental differences:

1. It takes place over six consecutive weeks (as opposed to five consecutive days)
2. It started on Ash Wednesday and will continue throughout Lent

These two factors provide new opportunities and challenges.

I was meant to be going in with two other actors / facilitators – Ray and Liz – but owing to the drawn out security procedures, their clearance did not come through on time so it was just left to me to lead the session.  To be honest, I felt a bit naked going in there without the backup of a couple of talented actors who could wow the lads with a dramatic scene or two – all I had was a couple of warm-up games and a big idea to share.  More of that in a minute.

Normally at Feltham I work with lads drawn from different faith backgrounds, but for this project I was just working with the Catholic lads.  So Wednesday’s session was shorter than normal because it started with Mass; it was of course Ash Wednesday.

I’m often struck by the respect that lads in prison have for church and the Eucharist.  I never forget three years ago when I went to Feltham and joined a group of half a dozen young offenders sat together and praying the rosary.  On Wednesday, about 50 young offenders were brought to the Catholic chapel for Mass.  There was solemnity, respect, focus and prayer.  Every single one of them went up to get ash on their forehead, despite Fr Roger telling them it was optional.

After Mass, the officers broke the prayerful mood and took most of the lads back to their cells, leaving me with a group of seven.  It should have been more but unexpected court appearances and no shows meant a reduced number.  This atmosphere of uncertainty is pretty normal in a place like Feltham.

Feltham is a remand centre.  That means it holds young men waiting for their court appearances and trials.  When convicted (or released) the lads are quickly shipped off elsewhere.  However, this group that Fr Roger had got together have actually been waiting for their trial for a considerable time – some many months – and long sentences are anticipated for lots of them.

They were nervous: “Do we have to act?”  They always ask that.  It’s quite funny really: they sign up for a drama project and then say that they don’t want to act.  But really, all they need is a bit of encouragement and they’re away…

I explained to the lads my plan for the next six weeks.  It is two-fold.

Firstly, I want to create a new character and story from scratch for a novel that I intend to write.  I explained that the only thing I knew about the story at this stage is that I want to write about a teenager who is in prison, will be in prison for a long time and during his time inside he changes.  One lad asked me does he change for the better or worse?  I said I didn’t know yet.  I explained that, at this stage, I don’t know what he has done, his personality, his background, his friends, his family, his current life in prison, his inner life, his future.  All of these things I want to explore over the next six weeks with the help of the young men through discussion, improvisation and reflection.

However, as I said, the aims are two-fold.

This exploration of character and story is going to follow a pattern.  And that pattern is based on the Sunday readings throughout Lent.  Each week, I will take a piece of Scripture from the Gospel reading, draw out a theme and use that theme to explore the new character and the story.  I have no doubt that the lads will also explore their own character and story through this process.

“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan.  He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.”

That was the piece of Scripture which became our focus on Wednesday.  It’s taken from this Sunday’s Gospel reading.  The theme… temptation.

We started with a few warm-up drama exercises.  Every single one of the participants dived in and had a go with a seriousness and intent.   This, then, led on to some simple improvisations in pairs on the theme of temptation.

At the end of our short session, we sat down in a circle and Fr Roger and I led a reflection.  Having seen their prayerfulness during Mass, I was confident in their capacity to take this on.  They were each given a beautiful image of Jesus and, gazing at the picture in front of them, I led them in a few minutes of self-reflection:

• When have I been tempted by Satan?
• When have the angels looked after me?
• Repeat the prayer over and over: “Jesus, help me in times of temptation.”

I gave them a little card with those questions on.  I invited them to take the card and image of Christ back to their cells and find time to do the reflection every day.

It’s going to be an interesting project.  Certainly for me I’m looking at the Gospel readings in a new way and this exploration is going to challenge me throughout Lent.  I also think that the process of producing a character and story which is ultimately rooted in an exploration of the person of Jesus Christ could be an extraordinary journey.

For the lads, only God knows where this will take them.  Next week I have a three hour session and I’ll be bringing in Liz and Ray with me.  Maybe I can persuade them to starting blogging too…

By Martin O’Brien

When I was about 24, I wrote a short play called “Babies” which was about a young couple who were expecting  a baby and, through a lack of communication, support and fear, they terminated the pregnancy.  But then the father of the baby discovered that he was almost aborted before he was born and his view of the world changed forever.

I did not write this play with an agenda or for any particular audience, but since that time it has been seen by tens of thousands of teenagers in schools throughout the UK, largely through the work of Ten Ten Theatre.  It often provokes much discussion about communication, where life begins and the impact of abortion.

After almost 15 years of performances of “Babies”, I decided to write a new play which explored a similar subject matter but with some key differences.  I remember once being told by a counsellor who speaks regularly to girls considering termination that focusing on the life of the baby often sends them into panic and doesn’t help confused women to make a decision with a clear mind.  Counselling which focuses on the future of the woman and how she might be able to cope with the different options is much more helpful.

So in “Nine Months”, the new play I have written, the characters of Tasha and Gibsy don’t really think about the life of the baby.  In fact, the word “baby” is hardly uttered throughout the entire story.

Instead, the characters make big decisions without really thinking about the consequences.  Sometimes, it seems to Tasha and Gibsy that there aren’t actually any consequences to their decisions at all.  But then we observe their behaviour changing, sometimes quite dramatically and we start to understand a bit of what’s going on underneath.  Crucially, we see that men and women react in very different ways and that these crucial choices, which seem so simple at the time, can change the course of life forever.

“Nine Months” at the Leicester Square Theatre, Saturday 31 March, 7pm and 9pm

Visit: www.tententheatre.co.uk/ninemonths

Newman College Mission led by Ten Ten

As schools drew to an exhausted end of term last month, and young people were focussing on wish lists, holidays and Christmas parties, something extraordinary was happening in a Catholic secondary boys’ school in a deprived London borough.

The 520 students and their teachers abandoned the school timetable for a week, and spent five days entirely absorbed in a spiritual mission which one Year 10 boy described afterwards as “absolutely the best school week any of us have ever had”.

A few years ago, Newman Catholic College in Brent – formerly Cardinal Hinsley High School – was on special measures and at risk of closure.  In the words of Headmaster, Richard Kolka, the school was “on its knees”. There was “a culture of indiscipline, poor results and an embattled staff trying to do their best for the students under the most difficult of circumstances”.

Today, it still faces many challenges – particularly with poverty and two-thirds of the boys not having English as their first language. Yet Newman College has managed to turn itself round.  The number of students obtaining the highest grades has soared from 18% in 2004 to 70% in 2011, and three successive Ofsted inspections have classified it as a Grade 2 ‘Good’ school with several ‘outstanding’ features.

One of the features regularly classed as ‘outstanding’ is the spiritual, moral, social and cultural ethos of the school.

And it was to support its ongoing spiritual renewal and strengthening that the leadership team decided to bring in the Catholic charity, Ten Ten Theatre, to run a whole-school Mission from 12-16 December – so that every possible aspect of the theme, ‘Living Life to the Full’, could be explored.

Deafblind priest Fr Cyril Axelrod

This was no normal school mission, however, because Ten Ten does not do things by halves.

“The mission was a year in the planning,” said founder Martin O’Brien. “We agreed to take on such an exceptional project as we were so impressed by the enthusiasm of the leadership team. We decided to take the whole school off timetable for a week – which is unheard of – and we put together a team of outstanding speakers, musicians and other significant personalities in the Catholic world, as well as bringing our own plays and workshops which explore life issues.

“Our goal was both to inspire the students to consider how they can live a life as God intended, in all its fullness, and also to leave the school with a legacy for its future growth and development.”

Over the five days, the students, teachers and even some parents attended talks, plays and workshops run by over 30 powerful presenters. Each told their own personal story, making it relevant to the lives, dreams and struggles of teenage boys. Just a few of these included: Dave Payne, founder of CAFE resources, challenging the boys to think how they could be saints in the new millennium; deaf-blind priest Fr Cyril Axelrod relating his recent work in Ethiopia, where people with disabilities are seen as being a burden and excluded from society; former cricketer David Fannon talking about the values inherent in sports and the risks that sportsmen face when under pressure; comic book artist Simone Lia working with younger boys designing a comic book based on the life of a saint. Edwin Fawcett, the up-and-coming young Catholic musician who played a significant role in the Pope’s Hyde Park gathering, led the mission’s music as well as nurturing the skills of the school band and choir.   “The young people of our country get a lot of negative publicity, but – as we experienced at Newman College – the vast majority of them are absolutely great,” said Barry Mizen, who with his wife Margaret had shared with the boys how their faith had helped them to cope with the knife-murder of their 15-year-old son, Jimmy, and led them to start reconciliation work in prisons. “We tend to look everywhere for answers and support when affected by life-changing moments, so to be able to share with the students our faith and the way it sustains us was, we hope, of help to them.”

Ten Ten actor with students from Newman College

In total, Ten Ten involved about 80 people in running the mission, from workshop leaders and speakers to priests and the people working behind the scenes writing material.  Ten Ten’s name is derived from John 10:10 – “I have come that you may have life, life to the full” – and they work to advance the social, moral, spiritual and cultural education of children, young people and young offenders through drama and supporting resources.  During the mission, Ten Ten presented plays, sketches and workshops to the students on current issues: relationships, friendship, social networking and faith.

Throughout the week, in “community groups”, the boys experienced a wide mix of workshops, each falling into the category of social action, personal relationships, prayer, creative arts or sport. They also journeyed through the life of a saint – ranging from St Michael the Archangel to St Charles Luwanga and the Ugandan Martyrs. Each group explored their chosen saint’s qualities, considered how he might respond to contemporary challenges and reflected on how they too can become “saints for the 21st century”.

For many young people, prayer is challenging and often considered boring. The mission tackled this head-on by teaching the boys different approaches to communicating with God, including Ignatian, Carmelite and Augustinian prayer. And with extraordinarily positive results. Ten Ten’s Lizzie Hastings taught them about Lectio Divina, using the parable of the Prodigal Son. “The boys responded brilliantly to having the opportunity to make space for silence and to sit with God’s Word,” she said. “They were calm, respectful, and when I asked them at the end who had felt God’s word speak to them, the majority of the boys raised their hands.”

The same enthusiastic response was given to the reconciliation services, in which over 20 priests were involved. Three-quarters of the College’s students are Catholic and were able to attend Confession, but all the boys were invited to speak to the priests. “I was personally very struck by the boys’ spiritual hunger,” said Fr Richard Nesbitt. “I found the reconciliation services at the end of the week particularly powerful – the depth of the confessions showed how much God had stirred up within their young hearts during the mission.”

Ten Ten also organised sessions just for the teachers, led by Fr Damian Cassidy, a Carmelite Friar who was the mission’s chaplain. He called the week one of the most fulfilling experiences of his ministry to date, whilst one of the teachers described it as “a truly inspirational event” bringing faith to the daily life of the school community.  “It brought us all together – staff, students, cleaners, caretakers, parents – all in a spiritual event to celebrate the mood of Advent.”   But it was the 520 students in that once-failing school for whom the week was the most life-changing. “These five days we have spent with you will truly be in our hearts and not be forgotten; we learnt about God!” said Year 9 student, Fabio Fernandes. “We learnt that God is always there for us and that prayer is not just a fairytale.”

Written by C B Martin

Lord Alton of Liverpool writes in The Universe newspaper…

As a boy, growing up in Wadowice, Blessed John Paul II – Karol Wojtyla – wanted to be an actor and, as a teenager, he participated in the school theatre.

In 1938 on enrolling at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University he was able to study drama until the Nazis ended classes during the occupation of Poland in 1939.

Then, during the Second World War, with a former teacher, Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk, he co-founded the Rhapsodic Theatre, an underground theatre group, which clandestinely performed nationalistic works and kept alive the Romantic tradition of live poetry.
 
After the war, and now a priest, Fr.Wojtyla continued to encourage the theatre group and he published critical appreciations of their performances. He also put pen to paper and among his dramas are “Our God’s Brother” and “The Jeweller’s Shop.” Throughout his life he had a love of theatre, music and the arts, once famously quipping: “ I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.”

An adaptation of “The Jeweller’s Shop” – “The Jeweller” – was recently staged by the Ten Ten theatre company at London’s Leicester Square Theatre.

From his celestial vantage point I am sure John Paul would have given excellent reviews but, more importantly, his enthusiastic encouragement to this young Catholic theatre company, founded by Martin O’Brien and his sister, Clare, in 2006 – with behind the scenes full time voluntary help from their mother, Anna and a small team of professionals.

After watching “The Jeweller” – more of which in a moment – I met up with Martin and Clare. They explained why they had established Ten Ten – now a registered charity – and described their nationwide work, undertaken from their offices based in Our Lady’s Church in New Southgate, North London. The charity receives no core funding and is reliant on the revenues and donations earned or raised.

Ten Ten are currently working with over 65,000 school children, young people, and young offenders and are now one of the largest providers of external education and pastoral support in the UK’s Catholic schools.

Within the setting of drama their work raises the full gamut of social challenges – from knife crime to the traumas posed by collapsing family structures; from addiction to the sanctity and dignity of life itself.

In primary schools two of their actors run workshops and deliver two of their plays, along with 60 minute sessions for parents. David Quinn, RE Adviser to the Diocese of Nottingham, describes how the values taught in Nottingham’s schools are “made more meaningful to the children” through the performances and workshops and that “the quality and content is superb.”

Their work in secondary schools – which, through the lens of self worth and being made in God’s image, explores controversial contemporary themes – has been given equally strong approval.

Archbishop Patrick Kelly commented that their work touches on “issues which matter greatly to young people”. Nathan Brown, at the Benedictine Worth School remarked on the “myriad of complex issues which were handles with sensitivity without lecturing or castigating” believing that “the message conveyed will …last in our hearts for a very long time.” Ten Ten’s theology advisor, Fr. Stephen Wang, is currently writing a booklet for parents to keep enabling them to cultivate the seeds which may have been planted.

In addition to their work in schools Ten Ten have developed a one-day programme for Confirmation candidates and for retreats. They have also been running eight week-long workshops in Young Offender Institutions.

Barry and Margaret Mizen, the parents of Jimmy Mizen, the murdered school-boy, work with their Safer Streets team. As part of this work, Martin O’Brien wrote “Sam’s Story” – dramatising the way in which young people can be so easily drawn into a world of violence and crime – and Ten Ten have performed and developed this and work improvised by young offenders themselves.  

But, in addition, during 2011 Ten Ten have undertaken a number of public performances.  Earlier this year “Good Creatures” was commissioned by the Arts Council and in September they are planning a run of public performances of their children’s play, “Healthy Heart.”

Like the Christian theatre company – Saltmine – whose performance of  C.S.Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” I saw earlier this year at the Burnley Mechanics Theatre (and voted a brilliant performance by my fourteen year old son, James), and who are currently performing “Pilgrims Progress”  – Ten Ten know that there is a real appetite for good faith-based drama.  That was why Leicester Square Theatre was full to see their contemporary re-imagining of Pope John Paul’s “The Jeweller’s Shop.”

“The Jeweller” tells the age old story of unfulfilled life, disappointed love, brokenness, human nature and the call of faith. In many respects, the original play – along with Wojtyla’s thesis “Love and Responsibility” – was the genesis of the ideas which shaped is later teaching and which would be described as “The Theology of the Body.” Central to his beliefs was an insistence on the dignity of the human person and their right to free will.  He passionately believed that “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

Martin O’Brien sets his version of the play in the England of the last three decades. The London production was staged on a small budget, rehearsed in less than a week, and with sparse technical effects and a very basic set. Yet, the timeless themes speak above these limitations. Ten Ten make no secret of their hope that they will be able to bring the play to an established theatre, with high production values. And they believe there would be a significant potential audience interested to see this adaptation of John Paul’s play. The comedian, Frank Skinner, described “The Jeweller” as “deeply funny, gut-wrenchingly sad and thought provoking.”

But whether it is through drama, movies, or the whole array of modern means of communication, John Paul knew that the old story and the old truths had to be told in new ways: “The question confronting the Church today,” he said, “is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”

As Ten Ten are successfully demonstrating, drama and the theatre can be brilliantly deployed in giving that message new appeal. 

Sr Janet Fearns writes on 3 July 2011

Few plays can claim to have been written by a recently beatified future pope. Yet this is one reason why tickets to Ten Ten Theatre’s recent production of The Jeweller were sold out almost immediately they went on sale. A second reason for the rapid sell-out was that the theatre company has achieved a reputation for excellence and meaningful work for which other companies strive and rarely achieve.

I have heard many good things about Ten Ten Theatre in the four years of their existence as an educational theatre charity but The Jeweller was my first opportunity to see them in action. They all have impressive experience as professional actors. Thus it is very refreshing to see people of such talent and calibre directing their work to schools, prisons etc, where they ‘aim to enable audiences to discover their own innate worth and value, and subsequently look for the innate value and worth in others and the world around them’. They therefore enter a much-needed niche in schools, prisons, young offenders’ institutions, youth groups and a wide range of other scenarios which are often neglected by professional theatre. It was, therefore, no surprise to learn that all available tickets for the one performance of The Jeweller were sold out. There was a sense that both Blessed Pope John Paul II and Ten Ten Theatre’s own reputation had made that inevitable.

Another striking aspect of Ten Ten Theatre is that it is unashamedly Catholic even though their work is directed to people of all faiths and none. It is a tremendous witness! They say of themselves:
At the core of our work is an underlying Christian ethos rooted in the Catholic tradition. We believe that young people should be given every opportunity to live life, life to the full.

Ten Ten Theatre staged The Jeweller at the Leicester Square Theatre, London, thereby launching this year’s Spirit in the City, ‘an annual festival of faith in and around Soho and the West End’.  This is, in itself, an iconic annual achievement in which four Catholic parishes within the Theatreland area, come together for a weekend of joyfully proclaiming ‘in the marketplace’ of Leicester Square and Chinatown that it is ‘cool’ to be Catholic and to believe in God in an increasingly secular and materialistic world.

The combination of the reputations of Ten Ten Theatre and Spirit in the City plus the name of Blessed Pope John Paul II and the play itself, guaranteed that the theatre audience included a majority of young adults for what was an excellent 90-minute performance.

The Jeweller is simple in concept: three very different marriages examined through the relationships between the men and women concerned.

At first, we see Andrew and Teresa, lifelong friends who decide to marry, visiting a jeweller’s shop where they buy their wedding rings. Andrew becomes a soldier and dies when his son Christopher is a toddler. Teresa cannot re-marry because she feels that Andrew is constantly beside her as her husband. She was, is and will be married to Andrew to the end of her days.

The second marriage is that of Stefan and Anna, whose marriage is only in name, for love seems to have vanished from a relationship that was once filled with hopes and dreams. Anna decides that she will sell her wedding ring, only to find that the jeweller will not accept it: it weighs nothing and has no value because it does not represent love. A stranger at the jeweller’s shop tells her of the parable of the ten virgins and shocks Anna, whose recurring dream is of a returning bridegroom. The stranger promises that if she will keep her light burning, the bridegroom will come to her and make her dream come true.

The third situation is the forthcoming marriage of Christopher (son of Andrew and Teresa) and Monica (daughter of Stefan and Anna). They want to marry but are afraid because of what they have seen in their parents’ marriages. Having seen his mother’s loneliness without her husband, Christopher dreads the possibility of losing Monica and facing life without her. Because of her parents’ troubled marriage, Monica is afraid that her marriage will not last.

The script of The Jeweller followed that of the original play written by Blessed Pope John Paul II when he was Bishop of Krakow, but it was also brought up-to-date and inserted into a UK culture. Gary Cargill’s opening words, spoken in a broad Liverpool accent, were a surprise to one who grew up in Liverpool but had not had the privilege of encountering Ten Ten. Gary’s accent in itself said a great deal: on many occasions over the years, people with a Liverpool accent have frequently been unjustly and unjustifiably regarded as uneducated and second-class individuals. His performance as Andrew and the deeper meaning contained within Gary’s script immediately challenged cultural misconceptions. At the same time, there was a delightful, uniquely Liverpudlian expression of affection which caused me, as one who was born and educated in Liverpool, to laugh to myself in sheer pleasure: Andrew abbreviated his future wife (played by Liz Garland) Teresa’s name to ‘Tree’. It was so simple and also 100% genuine. It was inculturation in a single word!

The Jeweller was excellent from start to finish, an amazing achievement since the cast of seven had only had five days in which to rehearse the play. It was equally remarkable that they could make so much of so little in the way of props and costumes during their 90-minute performance.

After the play, the Ten Ten team held a lively half-hour discussion about the production with the audience. This was at least as valuable as the play itself as it gave an opportunity to enjoy the honesty and commitment of a small company which, to keep its costs to a minimum, pulls in family members to help out.  This family involvement added to the authenticity and atmosphere of the whole evening.

During the discussion the unanimous feeling was that Ten Ten Theatre should perform The Jeweller for at least a second and a third time.  It need not necessarily be billed as ‘Catholic’ because its appeal is universal and can draw its audience to think more deeply about the nature of love. For those who believe in God, the jeweller who is the constant unseen throughout the play, is God. For those who do not believe in God, this is one production in which, having been stimulated to think, someone might be gently and perhaps unconsciously drawn towards belief. It is, therefore, a play which could easily be produced, on more than one occasion, in as secular an environment as Leicester Square.

Perhaps the best summary of the message of The Jeweller is a quotation from its script: ‘Love is not an adventure… Love is a decision’. Ten Ten Theatre conveyed this beautifully. They deserve to be congratulated.

Liz Garland (Teresa) Euan Borland (Christopher) and Ashley Ferguson (Monica) in The Jeweller, Leicester Square Theatre, London

Radical drama exploring love, and relationships, both flawed and fulfilling.

Terror of commitment, e-infidelity, and a fatherless and confused young man.

So far, so modern, yet all three aspects of The Jeweller derive from a play on marriage written in 1960 by a celibate Polish priest.

The author was Karol Wojtyla, then Bishop of Krakow. When in 1978, he was elected Pope John Paul II, his thoughts on love, marriage, sex and relationship, hit a world audience.

Four years later, The Jeweller’s Shop was staged at the Westminster Theatre, London, timed to coincide with the Pope’s 1982 visit to England.

And it re-surfaced in the West End last week, as The Jeweller, an adaptation by the playwright Martin O’Brien.

He has kept the original story, themes and character, but updated the setting so the three-act drama now takes place between 1984 and 2010.

A first act referring to a ‘new’ invention, the walkman, drew audience laughter. A confused and angry wife in the second act was, we learned, about to meet a man she knew only via an internet chatroom.

Yet the kernel of John Paul II’s deep thoughts on human love – is it a problem? Gift? Adventure? Or a decision? – remain.

He wrote The Jeweller’s Shop while working through a radical re-teaching of the Church’s view on sex and relationships, expressed also in a series of lectures called The Theology of the Body.

John Paul II thought sexual love was trinitarian, a triangular relationship between God and both spouses.

True love, the Pope posited, mirrored the self-gift and sacrifice of Jesus, the image of perfect love.

“What is interesting about the play is that it is attempting to do big things,” said Paul Jepson, the play’s director. “I’ve never come across a play that is full of so many very big short words.”

“The Pope had a clear and very human point of view,” added Jepson, who, until directing this play, was not familiar with John Paul II’s writing on relationship.

The imagery is haunting – especially the central image of the Jeweller whose piercing gaze searches the hearts of each character, as they buy their rings.

The play explores the relationships of three couples – the first is happy, the second, troubled, the third, tender but fragile. Each in turn sees their own relationship reflected in the jeweller’s window.

And to each as they order their rings, the jeweller gives a message on love – some hear him clearly, others report later he has talked ‘mumbo jumbo’.

We never see him, yet the jeweller is ever present, central to the plot. “The jeweller is God,” explains Martin O’Brien who has skilfully re-worked the play for a modern audience. “It is about marriage as a vocation. You are chosen for marriage. It is God who chooses to bring the couples together.”

God also appears in references to the Bridegroom, seen by an unhappily married woman in her dreams. Adam, the stranger who interprets the Biblical meaning of this dream (a reference to the Gospel parable of the wise and foolish virgins), is the biggest development in O’Brien’s masterly adaptation.

“Adam in the original is just a voice. I developed this,” said O’Brien whose version was the second he has produced of The Jeweller’s Shop.

He first read the original ten years ago: “The Jeweller’s Shop was never written to be performed, it was written to be meditated on.”

“This isn’t necessarily about the Pope but about faith in God. It looks at the range of relationship peoples face. People can relate to the yearning and to the pain.”

The one-off performance played to a packed house last Wednesday at the Leicester Square Theatre. O’Brien, the founder of the Catholic educational theatre company and charity, Ten Ten, would now like to stage a longer run.

And if you subscribe to The Times, you can read it here…

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article3077698.ece

EMMA on the Safer Streets project in Young Offenders Institutions writes…

Phase 3: Week 2 – Day 5 – April 2011

Our final day in Feltham involved the presentation of the work that we had done with the boys to their family and friends. It also signified the final day of our prison experience for the time being.

Despite a couple of last minute changes due to absent boys the whole performance seemed to go down a storm! The boys did really well, especially those who we had worked with on scenes who had learnt their lines perfectly, which was hugely impressive.  Furthermore we had a good turnout of family members who seemed to really appreciate what they were watching, which made all of our efforts seem worthwhile. Every single boy got involved and played their part which was also great to see, and in retrospect I feel that due to the progression onto script, combined with some fantastic scenes – including three which contained no speak whatsoever, this showing was the best that we had done to date. I think all of the boys got something out of standing up and performing and seemed to be quite pleased with themselves by the end of the showing.  In fact a couple of them really stood out and showed some great talent, which made me feel that it was such a shame that in some way that had wasted their talent by putting themselves in prison. Despite this, I do hope that in some way, however small it may be, our week’s work will encourage them to put their energy into something creative, like acting, instead of how they have used it in the past.

If I look back over the six weeks that we spent in various young offender institutes, I can truly say that it has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences I have had. It has definitely opened my eyes to a whole new world that I could never have imagined, and as a consequence I can only emphasise how much it will assist me in certain character building in the future. I have learnt about a section of society that is somewhat different to my own and mixed with people that I do not often come across in my daily life, thus educating me significantly. If I relate this to my character in the play, the way I feel, react and interact is in my opinion now much more authentic and truthful, having gained an insight into her world through working in the prisons and with the people that she would interact with.

Furthermore I feel that I have gained skills in group leadership through taking sessions with the boys.  This has also been a rewarding experience, particularly when I have observed at the beginning of the week how they totally ignore everything that you tell them to do, to listening to them speak enthusiastically about the work by day 5.  The guys that we have worked with have been pretty troubled which is why they have ended up in the YOIs and that in itself is a challenge as a facilitator because at times it felt like we were battling against barriers that these guys would never let down. Concentration and listening skills lacked greatly, however I feel that this made my experience all the more rewarding especially when so many of the boys seemed to gain something from our work with them.  Certain phrases such as ‘oh I wish we could carry this on next week’ or ‘I am going to do drama when I come out’ really brought home to me the effect that we had on these guys, who had little else to focus on whilst behind bars.

Overall the experience has been both unique and thoroughly worthwhile. I have had the chance to work with a group of talented people over a period of time developing what now is a fantastic piece of new writing based on truth and reality and which in my opinion forms the basis of great theatre. I have also had the opportunity to work in an environment that was previously completely alien to me, and as a result have learnt so much about a huge part of society that often remains hidden to the outside world. I feel that I can lot to take from this project, and really hope that it will soon culminate in the fantastic piece of theatre that it could be.

EMMA on the Safer Streets project in Young Offenders Institutes writes…

Phase 3: Week 2 – Day 4 – April 2011

Day Four at Feltham involved working through various scenes we had set up through the week and perfecting them for Sunday’s show (today was our last day with the boys until then.) We spent the first half of the day working with our ‘graduates’ on the two scenes from the play that we had gone through on Tuesday. It was great to see that the boys had remembered much of what they had worked on a couple of days back which allowed us to focus more on the emotion of the scene. I was both surprised and pleased to see their commitment to the scenes and furthermore their ability to remember the lines and at the same time act with a great degree of truth. They even gave us actors a run for our money! I think that working on the scenes was a great opportunity for the boys to be involved in more challenging acting and at the same time I found it helpful to see how these guys, who were closer to the characters in the play than us, created a sense of character and interpreted the scenes. They had been in similar situations and therefore were able to recreate the intensity and feelings that build up in a scene such as this, thus developing its authenticity. Overall I was really impressed with their work and felt that they had something pretty good to show and be proud of for Sunday.

The afternoon through a spanner in the works to some extent. As always in the prison environment there are a huge number of difficulties that are faced, and today this revolved around certain boys for whatever reason, not being allowed their visits on Sunday for the showing. This really disturbed the group and caused some commotion, especially as a couple of boys were particularly angry about their guests being rejected and as a consequence, refused to participate in the scenes. I have learned through our prison experiences that it is impossible to plan anything perfectly, as things are always changing, people are coming and going. Therefore when one of the guys from the rehearsed scenes from this morning refused to participate, it was important to find a quick solution, rather than getting annoyed with the situation. Of course it was a huge shame, and we had really got this particular boy to a commendable standard, however it was clearly not meant to be. In order to not let the other group suffer we had to quickly rehearse the whole scene with another boy, who fortunately enough was eager and enthusiastic about taking on this character.

We were also able to put together some of the scenes we had previously carried out in the week including the group of silent scenes which had all been really impressive. It was a case of everyone pulling together, filling in for the guys who had left the group and rehearsing them over to get them to a good enough standard to show. The important thing is that we got through it and by the end of the day each boy was involved in at least one scene and they were all ware of what they were to do. There was a sense of panic and disorder, due to the news of which relatives were to be allowed, combined with pre-show nerves however I think the boys did really well on the whole. If we look at the week as a whole there is no doubt that these boys had worked extremely hard, progressing further than any group we had previously worked with and I hope the show on Sunday demonstrates their hard work and makes them feel proud of what they have done. I have enjoyed working with group, perhaps due to the fact we were able to push them as they were all pretty good. Furthermore it seemed that the boys were enjoying themselves and this really did make us feel a sense of achievement. Happiness is not a common sentiment whilst in prison and with the knowledge and evidence that we had encouraged a few smiles, I can look back and feel that the week has been successful. I only hope now that the boys feel like they have achieved something that they had not ever expected from themselves come Sunday.

EMMA on the Safer Streets project in Young Offenders Institutes writes…

Phase 3: Week 2 – Day 3 – April 2011

Today was another good day at Feltham, but was also pretty intense, due to the afternoon’s visit from Barry and Margaret Mizen who came to speak to the boys about their experience of losing their son to violent crime.

We spent the morning working with all the boys on improvisations. The first set we worked on were done without any speech and I think to begin with my group found it pretty difficult to come up with a situation in which they would not need to vocalise their thoughts. After much discussion they came up with the idea of a boxing game – something I had worked on in previous prisons and knew could work well, so I encouraged them to pursue this idea. In order to create a scene without words the boys had to really pay close attention to the detail of their work, moving in sections through the action ensuring their actions and thoughts were clear. I was again really impressed with the boys work, which they repeated several times until the scene was looking sharp and real. They were also able to slow the boxing down in order that they were able to react to every single action, which again added to the concise and specific work they produced. In watching all the scenes it was clear to see that some of these boys were really talented and had some fantastic acting skills that were especially demonstrated when they acted without words. We have worked on silent scenes in the past, but these were undoubtedly the best that any boys we had worked with had produced. In fact whilst the scenes were silent, the audience were also silent throughout, concentrating fully on the action and respecting their peers. I found this hugely refreshing after the constant noise of last week’s group!

We then moved on to look at the idea of choice and establish two improvisations which were almost the same, but with different outcomes – ie. a yes and a no answer. Now the guys were getting pretty good at coming up with ideas for scenes, I let my group decide on their own situation and direct each other to a certain extent. What they came up with was violent and somewhat like a Quentin Tarantino movie, but was pretty impressive. I have no doubt that some of the bits included in the scene came from first hand experience of kidnapping, guns and crime, and in many ways this is why the scene worked – the action was so accurate. It would have been completely wrong for me to try and direct this scene as they evidently knew much more than I did about the actions involved!! Again as we watched the improvisations it was clear to see that not only were the boys working really hard, but they actually had some fantastic imaginations and sense of creativity that was being explored through the scenes they were making up.

The afternoon was somewhat different, particularly in terms of the mood and feeling amongst the boys. Our company had heard the Mizen’s talk when we were at Doncaster YOI, but it was really interesting to hear them again and see the kind of reaction they got from the boys at Feltham. They told their story and the boys listened and were happy to speak up and discuss their thoughts on all that they heard. What I found most interesting about this group in comparison to the boys at Doncaster, was that many of them picked up on the concept that the murder was an accident, rather than an intended action. I do believe this had something to do with the fact that a lot of the boys were inside for similar crimes the murderer of Jimmy Mizen and that by justifying his actions, they were also able to justify their own. I found it quite hard to listen to at times, as it felt like they were defending the boy who had killed the son of these two lovely people. However what was amazing was the way in which Margaret and Barry were able to understand everything that the boys were saying which undoubtedly gave them so much respect from the boys. I do believe this helped the young offenders to see things in a different light to the way they may have previously felt, with an understanding that despite the fact they may have committed a terrible crime, there were people who wanted to help, and were working with them rather than against them. I think it is this sense of hope that the Mizen’s offer to the boys that is so important and really had a profound effect on the group today.

The afternoon was pretty heavy and it was clear that some of the boys were left with a lot to think about. In order that we did not end the day on a huge downer we finished with a final improvisation which involved the idea of reconciliation after a long period of time. I think it was really important that we brought the boys back to the present and working on a scene that offered some positivity. In actual fact the scenes that were created all offered that sense of hope, acceptance and the idea of letting go of anger, which was exactly what the afternoon’s discussion had been about. I have no doubt that some of these boys will go off this evening and consider some of the things that were touched on this afternoon. I believe that even just getting them to think about what they involve themselves in is a huge step forward for many of the boys, who have potentially never previously considered the consequences of their actions.

CRAIG on the Safer Streets project in Young Offenders Institutes writes…

Phase 3: Week 2 – Day 1 & 2 – April 2011

Two days in and you’d think we’d been working with these lads for at least a week already. Considering we had a somewhat extra-challenging week prior to this we had surprisingly been ‘looking forward’ to a week at Feltham. Weird outlook, right? Thankfully it was an outlook we can be thankful for as the new guys we were given on Monday were a bunch of lads that willingly wanted to participate. Not only that, each one of them had shown a level of respect and discipline you’d expect from you and I.

We started Monday with our monologues we had only just previously prepared. Last week they were greeted with fidgeting and giggles, this week it was greeted with complete silence and focus… we then continued with an extra warm-up that the rest of the actors and myself would usually go through first thing in the morning. This, in simple terms, is definitely not something we could have attempted with guys from other prisons we’d visited so an extremely promising start had begun. We continued with our usual games & got them straight into improvisation to which they all gave some really in-depth, believable performances. A few shining even more but most importantly, showing that they enjoyed doing it.

Towards the end of the day we had gotten some really impressive scenes from them all. We then went into Tuesday morning to work with a completely different group of lads again! But alas they were the guys from our Feltham Part 1 ‘graduates’. The plan now though was to try something we hadn’t attempted before which was to have them rehearsing a scene from the play. For ourselves & the prisoners this was a big step into the unknown as script work is a lot harder to understand and work with than devising improvisations but to our hopeful surprise, they were actually pretty decent!

We had separated into 2 different groups and got both groups doing a different scene. One with Jonny directing/rehearsing and the other with Emma and myself participating in as Zoe & Sam respectively, with the guys playing 3 other characters. In this particular group the lads had really tried hard to get it right. One guy in particular constantly giving advice to the others on how to say things and to get things right. “Hold on, hold on” he’d say, “If you just go for it, I know you can do it”. A director to match Paul any day!

In the afternoon we were back with the guys from Monday but including the ‘graduates’ from the morning. This time, after the usual warm-ups and games (the warm-up once again going further and them reacting positively to), Paul had then split us into 3 groups. This time however, the improvisations were to be more complicated. An improvisation around mood & emotion, to show a piece that is both happy and sad. The great thing we can take from this is that each group showed a different understanding of what both of these emotions can dictate… an interesting point to take about everyone’s perception on emotion and feelings. What do these guys find as happiness? They were great to watch.

By the end of day 2 I had left feeling relaxed that we can finish this week off with a group of guys that can really develop their showcase into something really worthwhile.  If we can get them doing such in-depth scenarios by day 2, who knows what they can achieve by the end! I look forward to working with the group again and welcome the Mizens once again in the afternoon for a discussion as previously done in Doncaster.