Shakespeare Inside: The Bard Behind Bars (Shakespeare Now!)

SHAKESPEARE INSIDE: THE BARD BEHIND BARS goes behind the scenes to reveal Shakespeare at work in the most decisive institutional context of our time -- in prisons. The book offers a record of fiercely personal experiences, based upon the author's experience of watching prison yard rehearsals and performances, and interviewing inmates, program directors, and wardens. We hear an ex-offender explain how playing Desdemona was vital to his rehabilitation; we sit in the audience of women inmates as they respond to the all-male Shakespeare Behind Bars touring production of JULIUS CAESAR; and we listen to a chorus of unnamed voices detail how rewriting Hamlet helps them to survive solitary confinement. SHAKESPEARE INSIDE probes our assumptions about Shakespeare and about prisoners, and provides new insight into the function of Shakespeare today.