LSW HITS THE LORDS!
OR SO HANSARD & LORD ROOKER RELATE

Lord Rooker: My Lords, yes, indeed. One arts-based initiative—the London Shakespeare Workout—uses the language and themes of Shakespeare with professional theatrical performers to engage inmates, education staff and prison officers. Therefore, an enormous amount of such work is taking place now. It is not new. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, has raised an important issue. It is not all about clamping people down; it is about opening people up and encouraging them to be positive, whether they have offended or not. This is an important issue to have been raised in the House.

For further details please read below:-

            

29 Apr 2002 : Column 452

Young Offenders: Community Sentences

2.49 p.m.

Lord Campbell of Croy asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they propose to offer to young offenders, as an alternative to community service, playing parts in special performances of Shakespeare's plays.

29 Apr 2002 : Column 453

Lord Rooker: My Lords, indeed, they have. However, the nature of Shakespeare's language and the way in which people are able to describe events and convey violence through language rather than physically have proved to be beneficial both here and in the United States. Again, I refer noble Lords to the important piece in The Times. I believe it is important that people use both modern and what one might call "less modern" initiatives in both sport and art.

Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, is the Minister aware that a number of such initiatives are already taking place in prisons? For example, last summer Winchester Prison put on a most brilliant opera—"The Threepenny Opera".

Lord Rooker: My Lords, yes, indeed. One arts-based initiative—the London Shakespeare Workout—uses the language and themes of Shakespeare with professional theatrical performers to engage inmates, education staff and prison officers. Therefore, an enormous amount of such work is taking place now. It is not new. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, has raised an important issue. It is not all about clamping people down; it is about opening people up and encouraging them to be positive, whether they have offended or not. This is an important issue to have been raised in the House.