Captive audience

The next day, we had to get to Reading – for the performance at the Abbey Ruins, just outside Reading Jail. This show is always fun, largely because the prisoners in the upper cells can see out, and want to join in. I discovered two years ago that it is generally best to ignore them. With most hecklers, it is good to engage them a bit, and if that doesn’t keep them quiet, humiliate them into shutting up or leaving. Unfortunately, prisoners have nowhere to go. They don’t ever get bored of shouting ‘Get your tits out,’ and have spent years developing a sense of the truly offensive. So it is best to ignore it completely. This year, though, they seemed to have been on some rather fine comedy workshops, and the heckles included such classics as ‘I am a music man, I come from down your way, what can you play? I play your Mum’s d***’, and the ever popular:

Adrian: …even though I am a Scottish man..

Prisoner: No you’re not, you’re a f***ing batty man.

Lovelly. Still, it’s good to be truly fulfilling Mikron’s promise to take theatre to parts that other touring companies don’t reach…