More Info The Director The Cast The Team More photos   Prison Wings Writer Darren Raymond Darren has always believed that the written word has a power to engage and transform. His interest in writing has been growing for many years. He has been a contributor to new works by other writers and has had his poetry published in the Guardian. His first play "Cracking the Whip" staged here at Intermission Theatre in August 2007 and was overwhelmingly well received.  Much reference by the audiences was made to the outstanding quality of the writing. His writing of poetry and prose has developed and he has now embarked on writing for film. He recently completed post-production on his 30-minute film, SHOOT AND SCORE, for which he was responsible for writing. The film went on to be accepted for the L.A film festival (Pan African) in January of this year. It features the noted actress Cathy Tyson and is directed by Leon Herbert. Darren on Prison Wings I wrote this piece primarily to entertain my audience. I think as writers we can sometimes get too carried away with what message we are trying to convey and easily over intellectualise at the expense of entertainment. Now on to the brainy part!! Prison is a subject that has always fascinated me, it is constantly the subject matter of current affairs and everyday there are new ideas of how we can make prison work but ironically everyday prison numbers continue to rise.  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that something is wrong with the system. What can we do to make it work?  Personally I think we are asking the wrong question.  For many offenders it is fair to say that Prison fails to work as a deterrent. So how can we prevent crime from happening in the first place? My answer to that would be DRAMA. Many would argue that it is a bias or a wrong answer and maybe they are right! However I passionately believe that the arts have the power to transform people's lives, especially the lives of young people.  Part of the problem in society today with our young people is their inability to engage in anything meaningful, but stick 20 young children into a room and involve them in drama and the results are mesmerising. Everyday in life we encounter conflict at some point. Drama is conflict, it is about reacting to situations and the stage gives us the opportunity to explore just that in safety. Through drama, or performance on most levels one is able to raise confidence, self-esteem and (in many aspects) self-awareness. As result, regardless of whether one wants to be an actor or not, drama can equip us with the tools to be able to fulfil our potential no matter what that may be. It didn’t take me long to write the play, the inspiration of course came from God, as did the words - so if you don’t like it blame him!!!