Prisoners of the Bard

This review of the documentary Shakespeare in Jail makes me really want to see it:

The documentary traces a Shakespeare performance program and culls 93 brilliant minutes out of 170 hours of footage shot at Luther Luckett Prison in Kentucky, where the inmates mounted a production of The Tempest.

...

The prison is like an island, several of them say. And not all make it off the island–solitary confinement, prosecution, transfer, and even suicide interfere with a production finally and powerfully performed first for the relatives of the actors and then for the prison population at large. The movie is a kind of gift to is audience, and the gift it gives us–in an age in which almost no one wants to make strong claims for the power of literature–is painful relevance.

Then again, I'm a sucker for Shakespeare.

[Via GreenCine Daily]