The National Theatre of Greece is continuing its successful workshops for the personal development of inmates in correctional institutions, which are run in partnership with the Ministry of Justice’s General Secretariat of Anti-Crime Policy. This year, the workshops have been taking place in the young offenders’ detention facilities in Avlonas, the prison psychiatric hospital in Korydallos, the drug rehabilitation centre for prisoners in Eleonas, Thiva, and Corinth detention centre.

Participants in the workshops at Avlonas and Thiva will meet on Monday 13 May at Thiva drug rehabilitation centre to perform together in the production “Common starting point”. 

For the first time, two groups of prisoners will meet and get to know each other, doing warm-ups and rehearsing before the final performance. This collaboration emphasises the solidarity that exists between them and the efforts made by each of them individually and in their groups to overcome stereotypical prison behaviour and to embark on a new course of self-expression and understanding of their lives. Through the production, they will reconsider the past and the mistakes they have made, acknowledging their weaknesses but at the same time recognising that they are strong enough to cope with life’s difficulties and to equip themselves with knowledge and experience for the future.

Workshop head: Stathis Grapsas, Director