MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
South Africa has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Roughly speaking, one out of every 300 people is behind bars. That has inspired a lot of prison outreach programs. In Cape Town, one of those programs is not only rehabilitating criminals, it's also producing some fine actors.
Anders Kelto has this report.
ANDERS KELTO: The Bonnytoun House is a juvenile detention center in the Cape Town suburb of Kenilworth. The cement courtyards and covered walkways make it feel more like a dilapidated old college quad than a prison - until you see the barbed wire and heavy steel bars.
Hundreds of boys pass through Bonnytoun each year, for everything from house break-in to drug abuse to murder. Most are here for just a few months, but some spend years following a routine of meals, classes and counseling. But recently, a new creative arts program has attracted a lot of attention.
Unidentified Man #1: Witching.
Unidentified Group: Witching.
Unidentified Man #1: Time.
Unidentified Group: Time.
Unidentified Man #1: Of night.
Unidentified Group: Of night.
Unidentified Man #1: 'Tis now the very witching time of night.
Unidentified Group: 'Tis now the very witching time of night.
KELTO: The Independent Theatre Movement of South Africa recently started a Shakespeare program here at Bonnytoun. It's a three-week crash course in speech and acting that ends with a staged performance right here inside the prison.
This particular group is working on "Hamlet." One of the boys, just 15, is here for two charges of robbery. South African law protects the identities of juvenile criminals, so his name cannot be given.
He sits in a small holding room, wearing a black Bonnytoun T-shirt and fidgets with his hands as he talks.
Unidentified Man #2: For this, it's actually a big thing for me, an opportunity to experience how to feel, how actors feel, and how to work with a real producer.
KELTO: Tauriq Jenkins is the creative director. He's 29, with a trademark director's goatee. He says many of the boys are quite talented.
Mr. TAURIQ JENKINS: Some of the best actors you'll ever find are the guys who sit in prison. In many cases, these gentlemen have a refined sense of how to read a situation, of how to read human nature.
KELTO: And he says acting allows them to express emotions they normally keep bottled up.
Mr. JENKINS: If you shed tears in a prison, you're picked on. You're bullied. And yet, the theater convention protects me from being humiliated.
Unidentified Man #3: (as Hamlet) Married with my uncle, my father's brother, within a month. It cannot come to good. But break my heart.
(Speaking foreign language)
KELTO: Dennis Baker has been a manager at Bonnytoun for 25 years. He's a sizable man in his 50s with short, curly gray hair. He says there was initially some skepticism over the Shakespeare program. But he's seen it help many of the inmates.
Mr. DENNIS BAKER (Manager, Bonnytoun House): A lot of them were timid, reticent, shy boys. Here, they were given the impression to become something else. It made a difference to how they felt about themselves. That was evident.
KELTO: He says the production even caused his staff to see the boys differently.
Mr. BAKER: You can almost see the light go on when they see that same boy with a tunic on, you know, pretending to be some kind of warrior, you know? And all are saying, hey, maybe this boy can change.
KELTO: Another inmate, 17 years old, is here for assault. He slouches in his chair, arms folded across a gray Bonnytoun sweater, and wears a beat-up pair of Chuck Taylors.
Unidentified Man #4: Actually, I thought I was going to be kicked out.
KELTO: Why did you think you were going to be kicked out?
Unidentified Man #4: Because I didn't know I was capable of doing this.
KELTO: Of acting?
Unidentified Man #4: Yeah.
KELTO: And you think you are?
Unidentified Man #4: Now I think I am. Yeah.
(Soundbite of chanting)
KELTO: The night before the performance, the cast receives some surprising news. Jenkins describes what happened.
Mr. JENKINS: I was looking for my Marcellus in the one scene, so the guys went to look for him and then came back and said no, he's jumped ship.
KELTO: Jumped ship meaning?
Mr. JENKINS: Yeah, he had escaped the facility.
KELTO: It was an ironic escape. The character he played was a guard. But the next day, the show went on as planned, in front of a crowd of about 75 people - mostly family, friends and fellow inmates.
It was a great performance. And the number of guards there to keep an eye on things more than made up for the missing one.
Unidentified Man #5: (as Horatio) Good night, good prince. May flight of angels sing you to your rest.
KELTO: For NPR News, I'm Anders Kelto in Cape Town, South Africa.