Photo by Jeff Topham
Patrick Keating, Inside/Out: A Prison Memoir
Inside/Out: A Prison Memoir
Written & Performed by Patrick Keating
Inside/Out is Patrick Keating’s real-life story of years spent in and out of Canada’s penitentiary system; a story about a man’s search for community: the community of the street, the community of prison, and of the theatre. From growing up in Montreal to stumbling into theatre in Matsqui Penitentiary, Abbotsford. From the time of the Referendum in Quebec to his time with clowns in B.C.
Patrick writes, “The world of Prison is a world to which few people are privy. What I've learned from performing Inside/Out is that it introduces the audience to a world that is poorly understood. It doesn't moralize but lets people draw their own conclusions. The most enjoyable part of presenting the piece for me are the talkbacks and Q&A’s where I get to interact and speak with the audience. Some tell me that they have just been released after 30 years and are having a hard time coping. Some tell me about the ‘favourite uncle’ who did time inside and is now treated as a pariah in the family.”
“This is compelling, embracing, troubling, and touching theatre as up close and personal as it gets.”
“Darkly funny…a vivid and necessary reminder that people in prison are, first and foremost, human beings.”
“Each scene played out as a meditative anecdote on an early life of harrowing circumstances, through the wry, reflective lens of a man who is on the other side of it , seeking a better view.”
“Inside/Out was the most articulate expression of prison life I have ever come across in all my 25 years in prison.”
Credits
Writer and Performer: Patrick Keating
Stage Director: Stephen Malloy
Stage Manager: Sandy Cumberland
Cinematographer and Editor: Mark Edwards
Lighting Designer: Jaylene Pratt
Bass: Steve Charles
Sound Designer: Noah Drew
Set and Costume Designer: Barbara Clayden
Producer & Still Photographer: Jeff Topham
Executive Producer: Norman Armour
Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, City of Vancouver – Office of Cultural Services, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and the University of British Columbia’s ART & Justice initiative and Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster.
