Knot Theatre present debut show ‘Circuit Breaker’, following two women in the UK prison system

Newly formed Knot Theatre are a company of Bristol School of Acting graduates – Lauren Rickards and Aroob Sajjad.

Their dedicated aim is to make meaningful and impactful work that engages communities and helps to spearhead political and societal change.

On August 30-September 1, they will be bringing their debut show Circuit Breaker to The Wardrobe Theatre, following the lives of two women within a failing UK prison system.

An activist and a sex worker form an unlikely friendship when they find themselves sharing a prison cell. When a woman dies in jail, they are motivated to join together to support one another and amplify the stories of their fellow inmates, and they decide to set up an underground magazine.

Fires are fuelled, friendships blossom and sisterhood is put to the test. With nothing left except each other, it’s clear the battle is lost, but the war is far from over.

Rickards and Aroob joined Bristol24/7 to share some insights into the play.

How did Knot Theatre, and Circuit Breaker, originate?

“Knot Theatre originated at our drama school Bristol School of Acting. We came together as we were both passionate about highlighting injustices and prioritising the voices, labour and ideas of Women and underrepresented communities. What we want to do is blur the lines between stage and reality, using real life events as the foundation of our plays. We aim to tie the knot between real life and theatre. We saw a gap in the theatre world for a theatre company like ours, and we’re going to fill it.

“The idea for Circuit Breaker originated with my (Lauren) lived experience in witnessing and being surrounded by some of the dark themes of our play such as addiction, grooming and sexual trafficking. I want to speak out on the connection all these themes have to working class girls. What I then discovered is young women victim to these circumstances often ended up going down a path of crime and eventual imprisonment.

“I then brought the idea to Aroob, about doing a piece set in a Women’s prison in the UK. From there we began to research Women’s prisons and realised that we only had the tip of the iceberg and that to highlight the reality of conditions and the lack of rehabilitation in prisons is going to be a very long but necessary conversation.”

What background research did you do, and in what way (if any) did your findings surprise you?

“The stories we have come across are horrifying. Rehabilitation is not the outcome of prison life and that needs to be screamed from the rooftops. The information we find often seems to be from ex-prisoners and not out there to research from other sources, which is a big conversation in its own right. It seems an invisible war hidden away from the public eye, this simply won’t do and must be exposed.”

What are your hopes and expectations for how audiences might respond to the play?

“We hope that our audiences feel empowered and leave with all the necessary resources to further educate themselves about what’s really going on in women’s prisons and act on these issues. We want Circuit Breaker to be a catalyst for continued discussion and action. We hope that our audience is just as shocked by what they see as we were discovering it, even more so by the fact that the majority of the stories in the play are rooted in reality; from real people’s real stories. It’s not just theatre, it’s real life.”

Circuit Breaker is at The Wardrobe Theatre on August 30-September 1 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com.

Main photo: Knot Theatre

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