On May 8th, 2024, we visited the Student Cultural Center in Opole, Poland, to attend the final partner premiere within the AHOS project – an international initiative that uses theatre as a tool for the professionalization of incarcerated individuals. The performance Lost Angeles, directed by Agnieszka Bresler, was the result of months of creative work with women from the External Unit in Turawa and men from the Remand Prison in Opole who completed technical training in lighting and sound.
The performance stood out in many ways – the script was based on the authentic experiences and dreams of incarcerated women, while the technical realization was carried out by their peers from the prison’s technical theatre course. On stage, we did not see “inmates” – we saw actresses, technicians, and artists, people with new perspectives and new chances.
The AHOS partner in Poland, Kobietostan, is a Wrocław-based collective devoted to socially engaged art and working with marginalized communities, particularly women facing multiple layers of exclusion. Their years of experience in prison theatre were transformed into a powerful artistic statement that left no one in the audience indifferent.
Lost Angeles is more than a performance – it is a declaration of possibility. If the old world can’t offer a second chance, maybe it’s time to create a new one. That is precisely what the AHOS project strives for – to open doors to professionalism, resocialization, and dignity through the power of art.
