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Reviews

Shakespeare Behind Bars

Manipulative, yet engrossing documentary

By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 3, 2006

2.5 Stars

Shakespeare Behind Bars

Hank Rogerson’s engrossing, manipulative documentary follows a group of inmates who put on a production of The Tempest inside a Kentucky prison. Yes, the film speaks to the power and timelessness of art. And yes, the convicts’ dedication to the play is compelling. But there’s something more complicated afoot. Rogerson waits to reveal what crimes the actor/prisoners committed until we know them. Big G, a jolly bear, plays Caliban. He killed a cop. Hal, who looks — and speaks — like an aging hippie, plays Prospero. He dropped a hairdryer into the bath he’d drawn for his pregnant wife. Leonard starts rehearsals as Antonio, then gets transferred to maximum security. He’s in jail for sexually abusing seven girls. Rogerson lets the prisoners speak — and speak they do, about redemption, freedom, forgiveness. But it’s when they talk about their crimes and their repentance that the notion of performance feels blurred indeed.

Mentally ill inmate gets care, despite state's objections
The guards “tortured me there,” he said, adding that he got “zero” mental-health treatment in prison.
The 10th Annual Muzzle Awards
Mitt Romney will say or do anything if he thinks it will help him become president.
92. Rick Ross
The boss of the South likes to slang rhymes about slinging rock, but according to the Smoking Gun , the only hard time he did in Dade County was on the other side of the law: although he refuses to admit to it, he reportedly served 18 months as a corrections officer. For a rapper, that’s about as sexy as blowing your hype man on stage. As it is, Ross is so ugly he keeps his sunglasses on at all hours — even when traumatizing a Fader TV interviewer by whipping off his shirt to reveal his numerous tattoos . . . and his (bigger-than-Trina’s) man-tits.
Budget cuts
“Things are as tough at the prison right now as I’ve seen them in a long time,” state Corrections commissioner Martin Magnusson told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on July 29. He spoke about the consequences of the staff cuts that the 915-inmate, 410-employee Maine State Prison in Warren has had to endure.
Radical night out in Portland
“People are upset about Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib,” Noam Chomsky told 750 people packed into the Woodfords Congregational Church last Saturday night, “but if you’re concerned about human rights, take a walk into a maximum-security prison.”
Exiled Maine prisoners report abuse, danger
Maine corrections officials and Governor John Baldacci refuse to comment on them or the state’s responsibility for their care.
Sluggish response to suicide
An eyewitness to the suicide of Ryan Rideout, a 25-year-old, severely mentally ill Augusta man who hanged himself with his bedding in his Maine State Prison Supermax cell on October 5, calls into question the official version of events.
Phoenix freelancer honored by Maine lawyers
Lance Tapley, a longtime freelancer for the Portland Phoenix , has been honored with the Excellence in Legal Journalism Award from the Maine State Bar Association, recognizing his work investigating inmate abuse at the Maine State Prison.
Arbitrary imprisonment
Joseph Steinberger thought he had won one of the most important trials of his legal career.
The cost of torture
In the end, whether mass solitary confinement continues at the Maine State Prison supermax may come down to an issue of money rather than right or wrong. And resolving that issue may come down to whether the state wants to pay more now to pay less in the long term.
10 years later, we told you so
Like many in the alternative press, we pride ourselves on being ahead of the game. Sometimes, of course, that means we're wrong about what might be coming down the pike — that's part of the risk of being "out front" and not just reacting to the news as it happens.
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Topics: Reviews , Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons

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Watch the trailer for Shakespeare Behind Bars (QuickTime)

ARTICLES BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

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DON'T BE AN IDIOT | January 27, 2011
We're all idiots when we're 18. We're all idiots for the first half of our 20s, and longer, for some. By saying so, we're not trying to insult anyone.