Poems In Action        
HMP Bullingdon, 8th May 2001
Diary Entry by Oliver Senton

When the inmates first come in, it's always striking how quickly most tensions and negative expectations melt away and today is no exception. There are the usual few shufflers, not wanted to admit any interest even if they might feel it, but it seems a calm and mature group. Barry [Morse] of course is in the thick of it straight away, meeting a prisoner who recognises him from his days in The Fugitive.

The first games go well, loosening people up, not too much giggling (Although you can't blame non-actors for failing to see the point of throwing a sound and then catching it in reverse!), and before you know it we're into Cinna; time is flowing smoothly and quickly, ever a good sign. The group is genuinely focused, bar one or two, and we might as well be in a normal rehearsal room for the ease with which it goes off, and effectively too (Actually, this is easier than with professional actors - few personal objections are raised).

Bruce is off into Henry V and the guys are going for it now; whether they quite follow the details of what's going on, they still get the sense of it and enter the spirit fully (At least this is my impression - hopefully we're keeping track of what they're getting from all this). Some of the [Action Man] phrases get very strong responses of recognition, and when we raise our pens to scribble down our Witslings [original responses in iambic], the room is the quitest I've ever heard it in a workshop. Ben, the prisoner I'm working next to on the chapel floor, refuses to sully his rhyme scheme with any profanity because there are too many women present, and we're presented (as so often before) with some really moving, honest and surprising verse. It always seems so incredible that these men, often so bluff just a couple of hours before, will not only write down their innermost thoughts and feelings in verse for us, but will then actually stand up and read it out loud in front of their mates. What do they take back from this into their daily incarcerated lives? [One can only surmise.]

Finally we are treated, no, honoured is the word, to a poem by Richard Simms which he's been working on over the last couple of weeks; a tribute to our group and what, apparently, we and other visitors to the prison bring them. Bring him. It's very humbling - sounds awfully patronising perhaps, but I certainly don't feel worthy of such praise after just two hours of mucking about with Shakespeare's words. Still. Something's been done. It feels like a drop in a very big ocean.

     EDITOR'S NOTE:    

Below please find a segment of brief note I sent to Jason Mansell, our gracious Education Staff Host at HMP Bullingdon, upon our return on 8th May 2001:-

A note of thanks for all your work in preparation for today’s Workout. I thought there was, given the two hours which we basically had clear, a lot of hugely valuable work accomplished. The LSW team were all deeply impressed, as was I, by the commitment of the men. I, personally, was keenly effected by Richard’s poem, was impressed by the high level of responsiveness of all the men during WitSlings, and see that there is enormous potential in the project which we have discussed in the development of original plays utilising a mixture of both verse and prose utilising Shakespeare as a direct inspirational springboard.. The men responded wonderfully to the Julius Caesar segment, taking direction very well.  I was deeply touched by Paul, who, having been assigned a line, placed his script on top of the Chapel organ and bravely performed it without assistance, appropriately pushing his way through the crowd and cleanly picking up his cue like a rightful professional.  The men were here, as was my desire, very much in the middle of the language; they sensed the centre of the action.  When Alasdair's body as the slain Cinna was laid upon the alter and the chanting turned from gracious respect to vicious disregard in but a moment of its own volution, the effect was mesmerising.  Paul's concentration throughout was a lesson to us all.  Indeed, I was infinitely moved by the number of men who came up to me at the end and asked for copies of the ‘Action’ lines and the matched segments from Hamlet and Martha Graham. I had the great good fortune in my (relative) youth to know Martha, and she would have been thrilled to have seen the response to her words, never thinking that they would have been used in any theatrical enterprise other than her own glorious pursuits. I can still vividly remember the last time I saw her at the Met, starring into those searchlights which were her eyes, beaming, as they did, directly through to the core of one's soul.  I only wish she were alive today to have seen the enchantment of these men at her words.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action.  There is only one of you in all time.  Your expression is unique, but if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.  If you block it the world will not have your expression.  It is not your business to determine how good your expression is, nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep your expression yours clearly and directly.  You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.  What you have to do is keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.  No artist is pleased.  There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.  No artist is ever satisfied.  There is only a divine dis-satisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others.
                                                                          Martha Graham

It never fails to stir me to see how supportive the men are, one of another.  When I think of Steve finishing his haunting WitSling, [quoted below], so gloriously rendered immediately thereafter in original song by Sarah-Louise, I will always clearly picture Kevin leading the Bullingdon pack in fevered admiration - issuing forth loud praise from without his mouth aside the sound of his proudly flicking fingers in front.  Blessed be they all.  Even more pointedly poignant was that extraordinary moment right at the very beginning when John, (who had himself been an actor in earlier days - the skill fully showing - ) in an instant suddenly recognised Barry Morse and, placing his hands up to his head, was so very stirred at the prospect that such a major figure in the arts should want to speak to him.  Moving indeed.  That, I know from conversation in the train on our return, was thrilling for us all, and it took little to discern how greatly the sincerity wrought in that instant meant to Barry. Yes, in part and in whole, a wonderful afternoon: As ever, an inspiration to all.

Two WitSlings From Men at HMP Bullingdon,
written in but the space of a few closing minutes
at the end of the LSW Prison Project
Shakespeare Workout,
8th May 2001

    S.K. HARTE, AT0426   

    PAUL GREGORY  

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
For I need not love anymore
Where I am going and where I have been
You've used my love so now it is a dream

Thanks be to Sarah Louise for having collected these two WitSlings and for getting permission from the men to publish them on the LSW website.

    Oliver Senton  

Recent theatre: Macbeth (TNT Theatre, European and Middle eastern tour); Stand By Your Man (Richmond Productions, UK tour); The Southwark Mysteries; Phil Masters in The Warp for Ken & Daisy Campbell (Albany Theatre Deptford, The Spitz, Hoxton Hall, The Drome); Balthasar in The Three Wise Men (BAC, British Festival of Visual theatre); member of performance trio IROQIM, whose work includes The Starless Sky at Midnight, The TellTale Heart and Manifesto (BAC, King’s Head, Pleasance Edinburgh); Glumboso/Spinachi in The Rose and The Ring (King’s Head). Other work includes: Season’s Greetings (Hiss & Boo, UK tour), The Three Sisters (Harrogate Theatre), title role in Macbeth (Greenwich Studio), Sydney Carton in A Tale Of Two Cities (Image Theatre, UK tour), Clive in Five Finger Exercise, Tim in Salad Days (Southwold Theatre), Annie Griffin’s How To Act Better (Riverside Studios, ICA and UK tour), The Respectful Whore & The Tooth of Crime (Man in the Moon Theatre). Television includes: Casualty, Strange But True, EastEnders, Great Escapes (for Discovery Channel) and two short films – ShowReal and Camera Attack. Radio: Safe Havens, The Roads to Freedom, Bomber, The Sherlock Holmes Casebook and many others.