Students interview former prisoners for verbatim theatre production

It sounded like 14 former prisoners intimately recounting their life behind bars. In fact, it was a group of secondary school students portraying them in a theatre production.

The Secondary One and Two students from Li Po Chun United World College had only six days to put together the performance in a style called verbatim theatre. Steve Reynolds, director of Education Outside the Classroom who leads the project, says: "Verbatim theatre takes the actual words of a community group and uses it as a basis of a script, so we give voice to minorities who might otherwise be unheard or ignored."

This was one of many activities organised during the school's "Project Week", during which students spend one week learning outside of the classroom. The verbatim theatre project is in its fourth year. Last year's students worked with refugees, orphans and asylum seekers, and this was the first year that they worked with former prison inmates.

Verbatim theatre grew popular in the 1990s, and theatre groups worldwide have since adopted this style to tell the stories of minorities, court dramas or historical events.

Throughout the project, Reynolds helped the students grapple with questions regarding crime and punishment. These included how people who have broken the law should be punished and rehabilitated.

The students were introduced to the former prison inmates through the Christian Kun Sun Association, a non-profit organisation that helps them rebuild their lives and reconcile with their families. Each student was matched with a former inmate for the interview. Some even visited the hostel run by Kun Sun to conduct the interview. All the former inmates were invited to watch the show.