To accompany Synergy’s forthcoming production of The Long Road by Shelagh Stephenson, in association with The Forgiveness Project and Soho Theatre, there will be a programme of weekly talks:

The Criminal Justice System in Crisis

20 May, 6.30pm
Are super jails the answer to the prison crisis, or what are the alternatives?
Including: Rt Hon David Hanson MP (Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice), Erwin James (Guardian columnist and former prisoner), Anders Lustgarten (playwright and prison lecturer), Juliet Lyon (Director of the Prison Reform Trust) and Peter Thornton QC (Senior Circuit Judge at the Old Bailey and trustee of the Howard League for Penal Reform).

27 May, 6.30pm
Is knife crime the product of a deviant subculture, or a logical reaction to life on the street? 
Including: Steve Arkle (Stolen Lives), Chris McDonald (Acting Detective Chief Superintendent and Head of Operation Blunt), Jason Neish (former prisoner and facilitator and mentor for the National Youth Theatre Young Offenders Programme) and Wendy Tomlinson (Westminster Youth Offending Team).

3 June, 6.30pm
Does forgiveness have any part to play in the criminal justice system?
Including: Tim Newell (restorative worker and former prison governor), Marian Partington (author of Salvaging the Sacred: Lucy, My Sister.  Lucy was a victim of Fred and Rosemary West), John Podmore (Senior Operational Advisor for Offender Health and former prison governor), Peter Woolf (former career criminal and author of The Damage Done), alongside Will Riley, one of his victims and chairman of Why Me.

Talks: £5 (£3) Buy tickets for any performance of The Long Road and pay £3 for a talk.
Performances of The Long Road: 19 May – 5 June
Further information and to book: 020 7478 0100 | www.sohotheatre.com