The trauma of prison doesn’t end with the prison sentence. Returning home, if the former prisoner has a home, can be difficult, with family and friends perhaps changed, awkward or sometimes unwilling to maintain contact.
The devised show A Giant on the Bridge explores the situation of prisoner D after imprisonment, returning to his young daughter Fey who is being cared for by his sister June (Louise McCraw). These three, along with Clem (Jo Mango), who has been helping Fey write and the songwriter, each has a story linked to the other four and told gradually through the evening.
The story they tell is interspersed with over twelve short songs, mostly gentle and ranging from a few lines from the classic “You Don't Own Me” to the rap of Solareye, which includes the image of the prison system with the repeated line “Robot arms don’t stop.”
Even the happier songs have an edge of sadness about them, and, though the stories have a positive, hopeful message, they are also tinged by a sometimes moving sense of loss.
The child’s story is based on a traditional tale. It tells of a Giant locked in a prison by a cruel King, escaping only to be unable to return home without a heart.
Clem works with prisoners and has been helping the child write her story. But she carries a trauma of her own from something that resulted in a man going to prison despite her objections to imprisonment.
It's a gentle, well-written and impressively performed show that is often poignant and occasionally amusing. It expresses great empathy for those caught up directly or through people they know in the trauma of prison.