Unlocked

Partners: Geese Theatre Company (Birmingham, England) and aufBruch (Berlin)

All photographs with permission from aufBruch / Thomas Aurin / Geese Theatre Company.
All masks designed and constructed by Sally Brookes. Copyright Geese Theatre Company.

"A continuation of the partnership between Geese Theatre Company and aufBruch. Prison theatre practitioners involved in Tier 1 exchanges found parallels in terms of theatre’s ability to allow participants to make personal connections to fictional scenarios, through script for aufBruch and through the mask for Geese. At Tier 2, we will share skills and experiences, integrating elements of the other's methodology to learn more about how our work overlaps and where differences can inspire."

Geese Theatre Company and aufBruch

Unlocked is a Tier Two partnership previously funded by Cultural Bridge. Find out more about their Tier One partnership.

About the partners

Since 1987, Geese Theatre Company has been at the forefront of arts in criminal and social justice settings, having pioneered the use of theatre in prisons and probation in the UK. We devise and deliver bespoke groupwork projects, performances and training events which have a lasting impact on participants, harnessing the power of theatre to encourage positive change. The company is renowned for its ability to engage with some of the most resistant and disengaged populations within the prison system and well known for its unique use of mask in performances and groupwork. We create innovative projects and performances, working with diverse participants with multiple and complex needs, improving wellbeing, rehabilitation and recovery. We work across the UK in secure settings including prisons and secure children's homes, and are one of the only arts organisations working in secure mental health hospitals. Geese is a member of networks working to recognise, strengthen and develop participatory arts, including Calouste Gulbenkian Sharing the Stage and BAC Co-Creating Change Network.

aufBruch is an independent Berlin theatre project, which explores social and political processes and cycles artistically in its work. For eighteen years, aufBruch has worked continuously in Berlin’s Tegel Prison, for ten years in the Berlin’s Juvenile Detention Centre, for four years in Plötzensee Prison and for the last year in the newly built Heidering Prison, both of which are also closed men’s prisons. Through creating high quality artistic events and performances, the aim is to give prisoners a language, a voice and an identity, teaching the craft of acting, and creating the possibility for an encounter between inside and outside free of prejudice. aufBruch’s work is performed by a large ensemble made up of prisoners on the stage and an artistic team experienced in theatre from outside leading the project. Audiences of the general public attend performances in prison, many entering a prison for the first time. It sees its theatre as thought-provoking, inspiring people to reflect on the issues and as the basis for a respectful encounter between criminals and the rest of society, both members of a European society.