As tender as it is gut-wrenching, 8 Hours There and Back – which has been touring around northern England and played at the Waterside Theatre, Sale, on 18 October – unlocks the dark reality of children with a parent in prison.
We first meet Ruby, Jake and Grace when they burst onto the stage loaded with the raucous energy of youngsters: fresh eyes and big dreams. The trio play a game of cops and robbers. Ruby and Grace put on their best cockney accents to imitate the detectives that belong in classic TV shows, and Jake is under ruthless questioning.
As many of us did as children, the three embody their roles without inhibition – until a question stops Jake in his tracks and the three pals slip out of character and into protection mode.
Unlike many of us, Ruby, Jake, and Grace do not just imagine another world outside of their own. No. This game replicates the experiences of their incarcerated mums and dads.
This tussle between living and surviving remains prevalent as the children navigate murky waters with little guidance. Often, they are torn. Their relationships with their parents are rooted in love and admiration. They are hopeful for the future and eagerly await the return of the people they idolise. But they are anchored by shackles of prejudice.
“‘Where were you when you found out?’ is the worst. Takes you right back. It hits me like a tonne of bricks.” The young ones pause their play to relive with one another when they each discover their parents will be imprisoned. Some return from school to the news their loved one will be away for several years. Others witness the arrest in the dead of night. In every circumstance, the parent is taken away and it is the child who lives in the rubble and destruction of their broken home – faced with a deluge of questions, many they don’t even know the answer to.
But this tentative vulnerability is a state the children of prisoners are left to adapt to. Writer Sarah Hogarth and director Emma Bramley spent five years working with Liverpool’s Time Matters, a charity that provides support to children who live like Ruby, Jake and Grace. The pair – part of the theatre collective All Things Considered – spent time with 60 children. Hogarth and Bramley worked with Time Matters to build a rapport with the children, eventually interviewing them. The experiences shared were woven together to create the play’s three main characters. Of the words we hear Ruby, Jake and Grace speak, more than 80% of them come verbatim from the lived experiences of youngsters across Liverpool.
With this in mind, it is clear to glean what truly troubles the UK’s children of imprisoned parents. They’re unsupported by teachers, social workers, police and the government. They’re weighed down by the burden of society’s desire to know more about their parents. And they’re afraid.
They’re afraid their relationship with their parent will change.
They’re afraid they’ll not be able to spend time with their parent any more.
Many are afraid they carry a gene that determines they too will become criminals.
In a conversation I had with writer Sarah Hogarth a couple of weeks before seeing the show, she told me that prisoners who receive family visits are 39% less likely to re-offend. A reduction in re-offending like this is forecast to save the state around £15 billion a year. So, why does the state make it so difficult for families to visit their loved ones?
8 Hours There and Back exposes the challenges many families face when visiting. During a segment of the performance set up as a gameshow, the children must complete tasks to earn time with their parents. But that’s not all. Even as the youngsters complete the tasks, more curveballs are thrown in their way.
For instance, their parent might be unexpectedly moved from one prison to another, and different prisons have different rules they must adapt to – in one location they may be able to hug whereas in another they can’t so much as share a KitKat. Some must take multiple trains to reach their parent’s prison or even a taxi to and from the station. This is before the children arrive to be searched.
On average, a family spends £101 on each prison visit. As happens in the play, this financial outlay can deter visits. Without visits, the parent-child relationship splinters and frays, and the imprisoned parent is less happy which statistically makes them less likely to be reformed. Thus begins a vicious cycle for the offender and the child – who has committed no offence at all.
Throughout the show, projections transport the audience into the world of the children. Light and sound cleverly manipulate the atmosphere to emulate the tension and uncertainty the youngsters experience. And it is the thoughtful use of movement and choreography which subtly communicates the struggle Ruby, Jake and Grace live through.
After the performance at the Waterside Theatre, Sale, Emma Bramley was joined on stage for a Q&A by Callum, the actor who played Jake; Lorna Brooks from Time Matters; Mark Turnbull of Out There; and Olivia – a 23-year-old woman who was supported by Brooks and Time Matters from the age of eight when her mum was first imprisoned.
Olivia’s mum is a re-offender, and she explained that as an adult she has a great responsibility in supporting her mum. Olivia described the way the roles in her relationship with her mum have reversed over the years. She spoke highly of Brooks and Time Matters and was candid about her childhood which often saw her excluded and ridiculed by classmates, and even their parents.
Bramley made it clear that All Things Considered intends for 8 Hours There and Back to reveal the truth of the difficulty thousands of children contend with every day across the UK. More than that, All Things Considered hopes this play will be a catalyst in changing policy.
One thing is certain: 8 Hours There and Back portrays the extent of young people who are left behind, neglected and forgotten because of their parent’s incarceration. And that is indefensible.
Track the production company and keep an eye out for the return of 8 Hours There and Back here.
All images: Brian Roberts
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