Prison Shakespeare

Even though the practice of theatre in prison in Italy has a much shorter tradition than in the Anglo-Saxon world, Shakespeare is an important and much staged playwright by theatre companies of prisoners and the Italian prisons have therefore become a vibrating and unpredictable Shakespearean laboratory that includes different kinds of experiences, ranging from drama therapy, where the process towards rehabilitation and reintegration is more important than the finished aesthetic product, to productions by theatre directors, such as Armando Punzo, who are primarily concerned with the artistic medium of the theatre and its aesthetic qualities. I suggest that in Italy, today, the bond prison/Shakespeare is not a matter just for practitioners or drama therapists, but on the contrary, a fairly widespread contemporary issue which contributes to trigger reflection upon important topics such as detention, sentences, and punishment.