Inside

(Paperback)

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Description

Looking for relief from boredom and a chance to get off the wing, seven young fathers in prison sign-up for an education programme. They try to use the workshops to settle scores and to rise up the prison pecking order. But they're confronted with more than they'd bargained for, as they face up to their relationships with their children and their own fathers. Self-deceptions, vulnerabilities, and failed hopes and dreams are revealed, unleashing anger and violence that the workshop leaders struggle to contain. Researched in Rochester Prison with a young fathers group, the pilot project was devised at the National Youth Theatre in 2008 and was presented as Fathers Inside at Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institute and at the Soho Theatre to critical acclaim.

Reviews

"Powerful drama... this funny and streetwise play gets under the skin of seven incarcerated dads who reluctantly join a prison drama group"-Caroline McGinn, "Time Out London" "Philip Osment's brave, funny helter skelter of a play, Inside offers a glimpse of young men in prison, all of them fathers. Cleverley staged by Osment and his co-director, Jim Pope, it reeks of sweat, piss, concrete and steel bars."-Lyn Gardner, "Guardian" "A genuine drama of rich texture and revelation."-Michael Coveney, "what's on stage.com" "Its impact on the audience was startling and, for me, it was a most convincing theatrical representation of life in prison"-Sir Ian McKellen

Author Bio

Philip Osment read Modern Languages at Keble College, Oxford and trained as an actor at Webber Douglas. He acted with leading alternative theatre companies including The Half Moon, Shared Experience and Gay Sweatshop (who performed his first scripts) and then went on to work as a director and writer. He has also written and directed plays for young people for Theatre Centre and Red Ladder. His trilogy of Devon plays (THE DEARLY BELOVED, WHAT I DID IN THE HOLIDAYS and FLESH AND BLOOD) was commissioned by Mike Alfreds and produced by Cambridge Theatre Company (aka Method and Madness). These were all nominated for Writers Guild awards and THE DEARLY BELOVED won the award for best regional play in 1993. In 1999 Mike Alfreds commissioned BURIED ALIVE which played the southwest before coming in to Hampstead Theatre. In 2000 LITTLE VIOLET AND THE ANGEL was the co-winner of the Peggy Ramsey Award; WISE GUYS was performed as the inaugural production at the new Contact Theatre and was nominated for TMA and Manchester Evening News Best Play awards.