A Giant on the Bridge

I recently attended a performance of A Giant on the Bridge at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it’s the most thought-provoking, well presented performance of art and ideas that I’ve ever experienced.

The show is a mix of theatrical storytelling and genre-hopping musical performances, presented by a group of incredibly talented artists. It’s highly polished with a level of professionalism that I’m not used to seeing at the Fringe. Given that it’s been years in the making, I’m not surprised.

A Giant on the Bridge came out of a four-year research collaboration called ‘Distant Voices: Coming Home.’ The project involved various universities and organisations helping to share the experiences of people exiting the criminal justice system. The songs in the performance were written in song-writing sessions conducted at various prisons across Scotland. The music flows between folk, indie, hip-hop, and pop. It’s astounding.

Casting a light on the stories of those hidden in darkness, the show tells of a prisoner coming home from his sentence. Mixed-in are the stories of those dealing with the absence, the workers in the system trying to help, those who have been harmed by crime, and folk tales about perception and feeling. You end up with five very different perspectives on the events, but a common theme throughout is people using creativity to cope with difficult situations. You cannot help but leave the show thinking that no one exists in isolation, and that more humanity needs to be given to those trying to right their wrongs.

As the trailer above shows, every year in Scotland 10,000 people return home from prison to an uncertain future. This piece of theatre could not be more timely, with emergency measures being put in place to allow hundreds more prisoners with short term sentences to be released. While this may help ease some of the strain on our overcrowded prisons, seeing A Giant on the Bridge has made me more interested in how those people will be supported once they return home. The challenges facing those who have paid their debt to society should be approached with compassion and humanity, for all our sake.

If you want to explore this highly relevant issue, and consider how identity, family, community, and restoration are all affected by our justice system, I highly recommend seeking out this piece of spell-binding theatre.

A Giant on the Bridge is playing at Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) every day (excluding the 12th) at 10:40am until the 18th of August.