We were intrigued to see this piece, conceived and performed by women who have been to prison – a Clean Break production alongside the Royal Court.
Our previous experience of a Clean Break and Royal Court production, Pests, blew us away when we saw it five years ago:
In truth, Inside Bitch is not quite such a visceral, blow the audience away piece. It is a thoughtfully and entertainingly devised workshop-style piece in which women who have actually been to prison go through a post-modern process on stage of trying to devise a women in prison drama based on reality rather than the sensationalism normally seen in films and TV dramas on that topic.
The show is just over an hour long. Some bits worked better than others for us but for sure we found the piece entertaining throughout. That, despite the fact that many of the references to film and especially to TV drama on the topic were wasted on me and Janie because we simply don’t watch/have never seen that stuff. But we could imagine.
Here’s a link to the Royal Court resource on Inside Bitch.
While here is a link to a short vid about the piece.
The place was packed with the cast and crew’s nearest and dearest the night we went, which was preview Saturday, so the tumultuous reception was to be expected but was nevertheless deserved.
We’re ahead of the formal reviews, but once they’ve been writ, this search term should find them.
A very imaginative playtext/programme, btw – ironically priced at “a lady” and well worth it for a subsequent skim or three.
Not a conventional play, but a very entertaining and thought-provoking hour of theatre. We enjoyed it and would recommend it.