Following on from the
snow post yesterday, I am delighted to be able to write again so quickly as we did make it to London (on bus on left) and we had an incredible time! John checked the Future Cinema twitter feed and it said: 'Prison doesn't close for snow... Get to Jail'!
John and I had been to the
Secret Cinema experience before, but in this version, Future Cinema, you know the film you are going to see when you buy the tickets. I went to one at the beginning of September with the girls which was Grease and a lot of fun as we got to dress in our 50s gear, attend the Rydell High Carnival and sing along to all the songs!
It was John's good idea to get this for Lizzie for her Christmas present. And fortunately she said she would like to take us with her! I was pretty sure Shawshank Redemption was one of her favourite films and I have a huge affection for it as it was sent out to us in Ghana and we watched it one Sunday in the middle of the day, rather drowsy and it was the perfect thing to get totally absorbed in.
We followed the instructions on our tickets to go to www.stateofoakhampton.org and were given our identities.
We were also given this legal advice of what to wear which Lizzie fortunately realised meant we would be taking our outer layer of clothes off and having to put prison clothes on so we dressed accordingly!
We all made it to Bethnal Green library by the allotted time. Not quite looking like the above picture due to also wearing snow boots, thick coats and scarves but not bad underneath! We went into the waiting room on our arrival - where there were actors who started getting us in the mood including our lawyer who told us our prospects for our trial were not good. Everyone had American accents and did a good job. Shortly after were taken upstairs to the court room where we had to stand in front of the judge and say our name (quick check of emails on phone to remember our character names) and then he announced our crime and length of sentence. We were given out papers, then through a room where a man sold us our library cards which we would be able to use for food and drink on the inside.
After a little wait a police officer yelled at us to get outside and line up by the wall outside and there were still flakes of snow. There was a lot of yelling all evening and I was sure sworn at more than in my whole life - which thinking about it might well be zero. We were made to do as we were told and had to follow instructions for the whole evening. We had to turn to the right and put our right hand on the person in front's right shoulder and then we started walking. There were probably about 15 of us in the line. We walked out of the gate and then out to the road (photo on right) and even crossed a zebra crossing all lined up still with hands on shoulders. We went down a side road where there was a 1940s bus waiting for us with State of Oakhampton on the side.
Our guard got us on board and we started our journey. The side windows were boarded up and it was dark so we couldn't see where we were going but it probably took us about 5 minutes. Our guard told us about rules, shouted at us some, offered to sell us some libation - small bottles of whiskey. We were told to give ourselves a letter depending on our size - A being smallest, D largest. We all settled on B.
We arrived in what was either a school playground or a prison exercise yard - think was in reality the former but meant to be latter. There were search lights shining down on us and we were all made to stand in a line. Most shocking sight of the night so far was seeing a line of people running tip down in front of us from one building to another in their long johns barefoot clutching a swag bag and their clothes!! So it was real - we were going to be stripping!
We then marched upstairs where we lined up in the gym hall in our A B C D lines. To my horror, John was directed to the A line so we were separated. There was definite hysteria at this point! A new guard came and shouted at us some more. We were directed to go get a swag bag from the pile at the front and return to our lines within a count of 15. Mad panicked running - I asked lizzie to get one for me, but she said no!! We made it back to our line, one behind the other on about 13 and I looked over to see John but was horrified to see him at the back of his line with one of the prisoner actors but no bag!!!
They had pulled a man out from the C line who had moved early from his line and shouted abuse at him then made him drop to the floor to do 20 press ups which he did! They then pulled John out of the line and shouted at him for not getting a bag. It turned out the actor had taken him to the back of the hall instead! They asked (barked) if he wanted to do the press ups, he said no sir and fortunately they let him return to the line. Our orders continued about emptying the bag - it contained prison trousers and prison jacket - and there was a lot of fumbling as we tried to do the right things.
Then we were given a count of 15 to take our shoes and socks off. My heart absolutely sank. I had my snow boots on - which I had suffered putting on 2 or 3 times already that day and it is such a time consuming awful business. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to do it! Despite my whispers (Lizzie please help me) I was stuck on my own, and when the count finished I had only got one boot off - all socks and other boot still intact! Fortunately I wasn't chastised for it and spent the next minute finishing off.
Then it came time to do our clothes. I had been looking round for changing rooms where the women might be able to go and places for the men. But no, we continued in our lines - with a countdown going so it was more manic panic! Our clothes were hurled in our sacks but we weren't allowed to put our prison clothes on. Sneaky looks around to see who had followed the instructions about what to wear! The guards made fun of a lot of people!
Then we had to pick up our things and walk back in our lines down the stairs. We walked down the left hand side of a corridor and then saw people further up our line coming back down the corridor on the other side so thought they were just taking us for a prolonged walk but then realised they were taking us through the showers as heard water and worried we might have to walk through one of those swimming pool foot baths, but no... In the shower area that we had to walk through was... a man crawling on the floor with a guard over him with a truncheon hitting him, and the prisoner was completely naked and had blood on him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That really gave you a sense of how full on it was! We came out just shaking our heads at each other!
Out along the outside corridor bit we had seen the others walk down, along another corridor and then our bags were whisked away from us and we were left heading up the stairs carrying just our shoes and prison clothes. We started to look around us and were amazed by the place we were in. It had beautifully ornate stair rails and mosaic floors. Yet it also looked like a prison with balcony areas and cells off the sides. Again it was hard to know what was secret cinema and what was their originally. We were thrown into cells with about a dozen people. Lizzie and I were in the same one, with John next door and we got into prison clothes. There were bunk beds with towels and the bible on.
Soon afterwards the lights went out and we were all locked in. A lot of noise went on outside and I think now they were recreating the first night scene from the film. We were a bit distracted as a prisoner who had only been added to our cell shortly before the lights went out was trying to get the guards attention through the cell door. It was hard to hear what he was saying but we got the impression he or the woman he had come with were having a panic attack and were trying to be reunited. They let him out and started to take him along the corridor but then started beating him to the ground with their truncheon thing sticks. We all jumped and then laughed at ourselves and were impressed with the double bluff we had been taken in by!
We were then released from the cells and told to line up outside our cells. We were then marched down to the canteen - when fortunately we were reunited with John. We joined the queue and picked up our metal trays and spoon and had a spoon full of baked beans slopped on to our trays by a very surly looking prisoner and we moved over to the table area which was actually full so we stood round the edge. The guard said a lengthy grace then a prisoner rushed in calling the guard saying there was a fight upstairs. The guard rushed off and the prisoners we were left with cracked out boxes of hot dogs and burgers in brown bags for us!! Amazing!! They tour off squares on our library cards and we tucked in! A prisoner came along and ate a bite out of John's at one point - quite a big bite! We wondered if we could get away with doing that to someone else's!
They opened up the doors after a little bit and told us to go outside. We were then a bit lost as this was the first point in the evening when we weren't being told what to do and were at liberty to wander round the prison! We headed up one flight of stairs and then watched as a prisoner was chased down the stairs by a load of guards. Another guard pulled Lizzie out of the crowd and asked if she knew anything about that. She said no, but he asked again. He then told her to put the back of her hands against her forehead - this took her an entertainingly long time to work out and I was torn between giggling at this and trying to keep a straight face avoiding eye contact with the guard so he didn't do the same thing to me. The guard then told her to get on the floor and he held her down with the truncheon on her back. He kept asking 'do you know anything about that?' and she kept replying no. John then stepped forward - knight in shining armour - saying 'I don't think she knows anything sir'. To which the guard responded by making John lie down face down on the floor and put a foot on his back! What a surreal sight - sister and husband face down in prison uniforms being kept there by a guard in the middle of the hallway with other prisoners watching or walking past!!! Absolutely my new highlight of the evening! But then the guard makes John do 50 press-ups - and he'd been so glad to get out of doing 10 earlier! But he super impresses and manages 23 with the guard counting and then has a break while the guard hurls more abuse at him. Continues to 37 before the next break, and then makes it all the way to 50. The guard then lets them both go and he walks off while we move in for a group hug/commiserate/support/laughter session! Fortunately they had both seen the funny side of it and apart from John's shaking arms and legs were ok. The guard turned back and blew a kiss from the end of the corridor!
We wandered along to try settle our nerves and headed in to the chapel. We sat down there and then a girl all dressed up in movie star finery came in. She put on some music and mouthed along seductively to it. After she left we went in to the next room where there was some prisoner tapestry you could do. We sat down at a table where there was a jigsaw. We picked up and put down pieces for a while without advancing the jigsaw at all. We then moved on to the draughts table and were enjoying a game or John vs his wives! A prisoner came in and tipped a neighbouring board over - meany!
Then a little later they came and knocked our pieces too (am sure we were just on the cusp of winning) and made everyone head back to the cell area, but we were all standing outside the cells. All the guards were getting us in order and telling us to get our papers out. After a while, one of the prisoners came forwards and started singing 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind'. We were enocuraged to join in, the words were on the back of our papers, and it was a great feeling of uprising as the guards were trying to stop us but we carried on! Then at the end of the third verse, another guard came along and was firing a gun into the air and got everyone to be quiet. And then sirens went off and there was shout that there was a prisoner missing. Great excitement and we were put on lockdown and all ushered back into the gym.
We were able to buy popcorn on the way in and it the gym had been transformed into cinema area - big screen at one end and loads of seats set out (sadly the plasticy rather uncomfortable ones we have at school). We got our seats, third row from the front, and settled down. It was rather chilly so Lizzie grabbed herself a spare pair of prison trousers that were in a pile at the front.
There was a short film about being a librarian (I think it was genuinely a old info one rather than a spoof), while people were coming in and I tried to resist eating my popcorn. Then the film started and we were able to enjoy the film. It really is so good. It was still just as good this time and I really enjoyed the bits I remembered and the bits that I had forgotten about until they came up - which to be fair was most of it! There were some fun cheers from the audience at big moments, but the only other secret cinema bit, which was so totally cool, came at the bit in the film when Andy manages a deal to get the prisoners working on the roof to have a beer. Actor prisoners came in through doors with trolleys of beer and started handed them out to everybody in audience for free so we could drink them at the same time! Amazingly fun!
The film finished and we headed back and picked up our clothes bags and got changed and were able to get refunds on our library cards. We then exited the building still not sure what it was and certainly not where it was! We managed to find a bus and all made it home safely. What a totally fun amazing experience it was!
So off we went on Saturday 16th March. And it was so worth it! Our upgraded more expensive tickets were in the stalls. The first most exciting thing was the decor in the theatre entrance. Lots of school related things like blackboards and letters. Then in the auditorium it was amazing. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings in the way the set had crept out beyond the stage and into the seating area. It looked great.
