A Prison Audience: Women Prisoners, Shakespeare and Spectatorship

This paper uses qualitative audience research to explore spectators’ responses to the Donmar Warehouse’s 2016 version of The Tempest. Its focus is on a very specific audience, consisting of women prisoners who watched the production when it was staged in the prison gym of HMP New Hall, Wakefield, UK. With the production incorporating an all-female cast, and the play relocated to a women’s prison, this audience was particularly implicated; watching a version of themselves on stage, filtered and projected through the lens and language of Shakespearian drama. This paper explores the impact and nature of this experience, examining the prison audience’s emotional, empathetic and experiential responses to watching The Tempest