Steve Larkin’s spoken word theatre show about prison, poetry, and paedophiles, N.O.N.C.E. should have a captive audience at Buxton Fringe.
N.O.N.C.E., which stands for Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise, is a slang prison term for a sex offender. The show is based on events which took place while Larkin was on a year-long residency at Grendon gaol. Grendon was opened as an experimental psychiatric prison to provide treatment for inmates with anti-social personality disorders.
It is the only state-run therapeutic prison in the UK. It accepts prisoners who apply to serve part of their sentence in one of Grendon's autonomous therapeutic communities. Incoming prisoners must have a genuine desire to change.
Grendon has the lowest reoffending rate of any prison in the UK. The success of its approach is celebrated in N.O.N.C.E. which can be seen at Underground Venues on Monday 18 July at 7PM and Tuesday 19 and Thursday 21 July at 4PM.