“MY Angels” in Penitentiary Establishment N5 for Female Convicts

 Natia Gogolashvili

A bank robber takes 8 women as hostages and locks them in a room for one night. The women are killing the time in talking, getting know each other closer and reach some kind of catharsis. The hostages even sympathize with the robber after they know the motive for committing the crime. This is the short storyline of the play “My Angels”, which was staged in the Penitentiary Establishment N5 for female convicts. It was staged on May 5. Humanrights.ge talked to the director of the play Manana Kvirvkelia and the playwright Keti Pataraia. 

The project, which was initiated by the play director Manana Kvirkvelia, was implemented in women prison N5 with financial support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. The project aimed to stage the play and produce a documentary film. As the director says, initially they intended to stage the play in the Prison N17 for men, but the Ministry of Corrections and Probation delayed the process. So the project started few months later. 

“We received the confirmation on funding in December 2013. We were about to start the project in July 2014 and finish by September. Everything was going well, but in the middle of June we received a negative answer from the Ministry. The reason they mentioned was that they couldn’t ensure safety measures. The process dragged out. I received final proposal in November 2014. They said the project would not be implemented with male or juvenile convicts. The only proposal we received was to visit women, otherwise they said the project would be canceled,” Manana Kvirkvelia said. 

According to the director, there were all required conditions in women facility to rehearse well. The prison administration and the head of the prison herself provided great help to the project team during implementation. The prisoners also showed great interest in the project, because these kinds of events are not new for them. They have already staged several amateur plays .  

“We had a feeling of happiness, because we were in the right place where people needed us. It was mutual process.. If the prisoners did not accept us, we would have failed. The head of the prison Nestan Verulashvili accepted us very well. At the beginning we were planning to have a casting, but the head of the prison took responsibility to do it herself to secure our time. We met the convicts, talked with them, presented the project. Many of them wished to participate, but after they learned we were planning to produce a documentary too, some of them refused- they didn’t want to be video-recorded. After casting 8 women were selected. The project also included participation of one professional actor. The director of the facility allowed us to do that as well. We involved in the play Giorgi Zanguri, an actor of the Free Theater. Shooting of the documentary has almost finished. We have done a lot of interesting shots. Everything is represented as documentary – rehearsals, meetings, conversations. We have interviewed comvicts. The documentary is directed by Elene Asatiani. Me and Levan Koghuashvili Are producers,”_ said Manana Kvirkvelia. 

Rehearsals of the play were held every day for 4-5 hours in the library of women prison N5. The play was exclusively written for the women prisoners by Keti Pataraia. As she said, before she started writing, she met the prisoners several times and got better acquainted with them.

“I had to write the play in a way that 8 women and 1 man could participate. So there must have been 9 almost equally important characters. But before I started writing the play, I was talking to the participants. We had three or four meetings. We talked about topics that bother all of us. We expressed our opinions honestly. We were not interested in the issue of a convicted woman. A woman stays woman whether she is in or out of the prison. They preferred written form of communication. Several important issues were identified in their writings: economic issues, moral issues, unemployment, cruelty among people, demolition of human values, loss of traditions etc. We didn’t aim to write a play about prisoners, in opposite, that would have been a lie from us, because in that case we would have had to know the place very well. Our primary goal was to make the people think about themselves. I took into consideration their wishes, some of them didn’t want to have long scripts, some of them had issues with the clothes etc. During writing there were several characters that I knew exactly who would play. Finally the crime and punishment was selected as a theme of the play and that’s how “My Angels” was created. “_ says Keti Pataraia.

The playwright Keti pataraia participates in the play herself. She plays the role of a beggar. As the director of the play says this decision had a positive result: we have tried a lot of prisoners for this role, but no one liked it. Maybe they didn’t like the role of a beggar. 

The prisoners who are participating in the play will receive honorarium of about 400 dollars, but they do not know about it yet. The prisoners should have participated in the play voluntarily and not because of money.

Before the premiere the representatives of Human Right Center attended one of the rehearsals during one of the monitoring visits in the female facility. 

The female prisoners were emotionally embodying their characters and were away from the heavy prison routine for few hours. 

As the executive director of Human Right Center Aleko Tskitishvili says, it is very important to implement these type of activities in prisons, because the convicts can start the socialization process even within the walls of a prison:“Another positive side of this project is that the director and dramatist of the play gained experience of having relationship with prisoners. Hopefully they can make the Ministry of Corrections agree on implementing this kind of project in Juvenile Prison too. Closed environment and inactivity has worse impact on the psychics of juvenile prisoners, this was proven to us during the monitoring of the juvenile and women correctional facilities. “

The director and playwright keep the end of the play in secret. They did not say what happens to the robber who captured 8 women, because it is an interactive play. Before the final scene the audience gets involved into the play and offer their versions of the end, they talk about the characters, discuss their conditions, talk about the crime, its motives and about punishment. However the ending of the play is predefined, it might be acceptable or unacceptable for someone. 

The authors of the project hope that “My Angels’ will be staged outside the prison in public theatre. For that, the prisoners will need a permission from the Minister of Corrections to leave the facility.. Tbilisi Ilia University is ready to host the play. The director Manana Kvirkvelia positively evaluates the project and hopes similar projects will be implemented in other facilities too, especially in the juvenile facility.