Astrid Koppen Mjanger #
Over the past ten years I have been running various theater projects, through my one-woman company TeaterKarakter, in Bjørgvin Prison as part of the educational and training programs offered there. This work is an extension of the efforts initiated by Teater Bak Murene (TBM) in Western Norway in the early 2000s. I wrote my master’s thesis “Theater in Closed Rooms – A Study of the Facilitator in Devising Processes with Inmates in Prison” (Mjanger, 2021) at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), and for the past two years I have also had two master’s students in Arts, Maria Lillestøl and Camilla Trosterud, join the team.
Geir Hundvebakke, head of department at Åsane High School, Fossane, is responsible for the educational programs behind bars in Bergen. Together with the prison, they facilitate the execution of various theater projects and artistic initiatives.
This year, we held a creative workshop in Bjørgvin Prison where we worked on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet.” Self-chosen themes and music also played a significant role in the work, with the school’s music teacher Eivind Kvamme and philosopher Marianne Walderhaug making important contributions. We were also visited by the theater duo K13, who performed their version of “Romeo & Juliet” for inmates and staff at Bjørgvin. The theater group in Bjørgvin also had two theater visits in the city where we attended a professional theater performance and an operetta.
This year’s workshop was part of the Creative Europe development project called TYPUS (Transforming Young People Using Shakespeare), with Italy and Greece participating alongside Norway. Associate Professor Cecilie Haagensen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), along with Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen from the University of Agder (UIA), managed the international collaboration, while I, together with Lillestøl and Trosterud, handled the practical-artistic process in Bjørgvin Prison.
We always focus on the process rather than the product, and if the creative work results in a small performance, it is a bonus. This year, we managed to put on a performance inside the prison, where “Stroke of Destiny” was played for about 15 inmates and staff at Bjørgvin, as well as a performance at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences where the inmates performed for over 40 audience members, including guests from Italy and Greece. This was a wonderful and memorable experience for those involved.
I find that artistic processes in prison often encounter resistance related to factors such as framework conditions, mutual trust and safety within the group, and collaboration among participants. It is all the more satisfying when positive effects emerge in the form of joy, development, a sense of mastery, and perhaps a renewed belief in one’s innate abilities among the participants. Several group members expressed great appreciation for the interpersonal aspect of a collective creative process and for building relationships in an “otherwise monotonous everyday life.” The inmates used words like fun, educational, inspiring, and different to describe the process, and after the performance, everyone was very satisfied with both their own and the group’s efforts on stage. All participants expressed that they now had a better understanding of Shakespeare’s tragedy about the two young lovers who, through their deaths, create peace and reconciliation between enemies. For the greatest of all is love.
Relevant links:
• Typus_Project | Transforming Young People Using Shakespeare
• Teater Karakter
• Creative Europe
• Puntozero Teatro
• K13 Scenekunst
