Edinburgh Fringe: Giant on the Bridge explores experiences of coming home from prison

The challenges of coming home after prison are being explored in a new gig theatre event at this year’s Fringe.

A Giant on the Bridge features songs written by people connected to the criminal justice system, including many current and former prisoners.

Charity Vox Liminis, who run the workshops, hopes to change the conversation around crime and punishment with creative ventures involving people with convictions, artists and academics to develop the role of the arts in criminal justice.

Musical co-director Jo Mango said: “It was born out of a project called Distant Voices, where people connected to the criminal justice system were paired with Scottish songwriters to explore their relationship to ‘coming home’ after imprisonment.

“I think this debate [around prisons] is quite polarising and people often get into political argy-bargy about it.

“But when you listen to a song you’re in a different way of receiving things.

“Alot of people have found the show very emotional. There are thousands of people who come out of prison every year and even more thousands of people who have been connected to that experience.

“For some its close to home, but for people who have never thought about it before, they feel like its a step into a world they hadn’t considered before.”

The shows musical co-director and Admiral Fallow frontman Louis Abbot is was also involved heavily in the song writing workshops, and said at first he was surprised by the innate creativity of people in prison.

“We would try go in with a bit of a theme as a steer for anyone that didn’t have an idea an what they might like to write about.

“So many people had never done any creative writing before, let alone song-writing.

“We’d often deal with people who really wanted to get a lot of the more difficult things off of their chest which I think art is such an important vehicle for.”

It comes as the Scottish Government recently approved emergency measures to release more than 500 prisoners nearing the end of a short sentence early, in a bid to reduce overcrowding in Scotland’s jails.

It’s a move welcomed by the charity’s co-founder and Professor of Criminology and Social Work at Glasgow University, Fergus McNeill.

He said: “Overcrowded prisons cannot deliver on rehabilitation and reintegration.

“I think sometimes people think we’re making society safer by putting people away but when we do that too much, and with the wrong people for the wrong length of time we are storing up problems for ourselves. So, it’s critical we get the prison population down.

“This show teaches us how complicated that homecoming is and the demands it places on people and the community and people affected by the crime. All those people need support.

“A former prisoner once said to me the second sentence is harder than the first and he meant the sentence you serve after you’re released.”

A Giant on the Bridge is on every day at 10:40am until August 18 (except August 12) at Assembly Roxy Central in Edinburgh.