Inside the Roumieh prison, 45 long sentence prisoners have decided to show the world what they’re really about. They are preparing an event for everyone to see. It’s not a mutiny, it’s a play.

“You’re delivering your line too late and you’re not articulating! Are you going to do that on the opening night?” The actors are getting restless as the director makes it clear she will tolerate nothing but absolute commitment to the play. They have been rehearsing for about ten month. In one of the scenes, members of a jury examine their conscience as they are about to sentence a suspect to death. “I wonder if this is what happened in my trial… but that’s not how trials happen in Lebanon,” says an actor watching his fellow cast members. His comment may seem weird but in this particular place it’s totally inconspicuous. This play rehearsal is taking place in the Roumieh prison. The actors, dancers and singers have been found guilty of sexual assault, drug dealing, theft, manslaughter. There are 45 of them, old and young, Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian, Iraqi, Nigerian, Bangladeshi…Some will be going back to society but others are in for a life sentence and one of them is on death row.