Redemption Play at Edinburgh Fringe

A Belgian ex-prisoner tells how the Bible saved his life in this play at the Edinburgh fringe.

Jean-Marc Mahy was sent to prison at the age of seventeen and spent almost 20 years inside for involuntary manslaughter, three in solitary confinement.

In A Man Standing, Mahy recalls his brutal prison life with its humiliations, isolation, and lurking madness.

In one episode, he recounts how he received short shrift from the Catholic chaplain who'd also happened to preside over the funeral of the policeman who had died after a struggle with Mahy.

The young criminal breaks down and cries out: "O Lord, you won't abandon me? Don't leave me, I beg you!"

The 'grim priest' did leave Mahy a Bible and rosary and he proceeds to pray out loud the Hail Mary and Our Father, adding to the latter: "Deliver me from my evil."

A baptised Catholic who got taught his Catechism and had made his Holy Communion, Mahy proceeded to pray the whole month long. "But it was the Bible that saved me," he said.

Mahy became hooked on heroïn in jail. "But in the Bible, there was a book I loved above all the others, the Book of Psalms. Psalms are cries of hope, despair, love, anger and peace. And I took hold of the psalms, making them speak to my own story." He quit heroïn.

Jean-Marc bears passionate testimony to warn young people from following his path in a complex ode to hope and courage: to remain standing against all odds.

The play compels debate on prison-life, on rights, responsibilities and rehabilitation.

A MAN STANDING

Played in both French (surtitled) and English

Théâtre de l'Ancre (Belgium)

Summerhall
1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

5-14 August 5.25pm

Tickets £12, £8

Box Office : 0131 560 1581
info@summerhall.co.uk