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ACTRESS Palmyra Mattner who first trod the boards with the Manama Theatre Club is now teaching inmates and performing with them weekly in a notorious prison regarded as ‘one of the most dangerous places to work’ in the US.
Last year, the 23-year-old graduated from the prestigious Stella Adler Studio’s three-year con-servatory programme, which boasts a plethora of famous former pupils, including Hollywood heavyweights Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek.
Every Wednesday night she works with other Stella alumni at Riker’s Island, New York City’s main jail complex, teaching acting workshops to adult male inmates. It is also the name of the 413.17-acre island on which it sits.
“The work in jail was nerve-wracking the first time because I definitely felt like an intruder and out-sider - here I am, a privileged white young woman with a posh British accent who has only just recently started to really understand the social landscape of New York, let alone the US, coming to Riker’s Island to teach and participate in a drama class.
“The process to get in was all new to me - the dog sniffing, the amount of mothers with their kids on the bus, the isolation of Rikers Island - and felt so long. By the time we got to the chapel where we take class, I was itching to do something.
“Of course, there is a divide at first and definitely a barrier between the inmates and us- why are we here and why are we teaching this acting class for two hours?” she said.
However, she said that the minute actors began a warm-up routine and Tommy Demenkoff, the director of the programme, started an improvisation exercise, the ‘temperature in the room’ changed.
“Suddenly I am in the middle of an ‘improv’ yelling in gibberish at a six-foot man in his forties and everyone is listening and waiting for what happens next.
“We don’t focus on all the things that make us different and the fact that we would probably never do this on the outside and, instead, just work off our instincts.
“The class revolves around imagination work, so watching the bodies in the room, including the correctional officers, loosen up and get playful is really thrilling.
“The guys are always so surprised by how grotesque and loud I can be, as am I when one of the inmates has that rare moment of vulnerability and softness.
“I’ve realised how lucky I am through working with these guys - life doesn’t always treat people kindly and race, money, class and your upbringing are a huge deciding factor in the harsh, divided world we live in.
“If things hadn’t gone so well for me, who knows where I would be? All I know is I am very grateful that I get to continue to do this work.”
Rikers Island is one of the world’s largest correctional institutions and mental institutions and has a reputation for abuse and neglect of inmates, attracting increased media and judicial scrutiny that has resulted in numerous rulings against the New York City government.
It is also notorious for numerous assaults by inmates on uniformed and civilian staff, resulting in often serious injuries. Violence on Rikers Island has been increasing in recent years. In 2015 there were 9,424 assaults, the highest number in five years.
In 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his intention to close the jail complex within 10 years, if the city’s crime rates stay low and the population at Rikers is reduced from 10,000 to 5,000.
In the meantime, Palmyra, the half German-half Syrian St Christopher’s School pupil who used to live the expat dream in Barbar, will continue her ‘jail time’ with a passion.
“We encourage inmates to write scenes which we in turn create into a play, and my personal favourite, when we bring in guest artists and I just get to take class with the guys and learn,” she said.
“We recently had a mime teacher come in and for her entire class she didn’t speak once. We really had to step outside of ourselves, drop our egos at the door and fully engage to physically tell a story. For two hours we were transported, played like we were children and ultimately forgot we were in a jail for a slice of time.”
She has also been successfully developing her acting talent across the US to much acclaim as well. After graduating, she journeyed across the vast nation with Aquila Theatre’s touring company.
After two months of rehearsal, she managed to cover 30 states within the four months spent on the road touring with William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Nile with a three-strong cast.
Palmyra played up to eight characters in the crime novelist’s thriller and almost every part other than Leonato and Benedick in the playwright’s comedy.
“When I wasn’t performing on the road, sometimes it could be two shows a day back-to-back and then right back on the bus to get to our next location, I taught acting workshops at high schools and colleges.
“The best part of touring was that I got to see the entire country from coast-to-coast and really get a grasp of how completely different states are from one another. New York really isn’t America. It’s way more complex, which I found especially as we were traveling during the presidential election. The political climate was vastly different depending on where we were and I met people from all walks of life who really helped better shape my understanding of the US.”
Since returning from tour in March, she co-directed Much Ado About Nothing with Aquila Theatre’s Shakespeare Leaders Programme at the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem.
She also resumed working on the workplace-comedy web series ‘Labelled’ which she films once-a-month which has just been accepted into the ‘official selection’ in this year’s NYC Web Fest.
“I play an uptight young woman named Ellie who works at a record label company and I really get to use my British accent which is really fun - I definitely ‘up the posh’!” she said.
She plays opposite Bethany Watson, who co-hosts the Elvis Duran morning show in New York on iHeart Radio who penned and produces the series alongside Jonathan Sosis. “It’s a really fun project to get to be a part of and the crew and other actors are a joy to be around,” said Palmyra, who has written and filmed a short 10-minute film for the New York project entitled Split-Ends, filmed a short film called Bird On A Wire in Brooklyn and also participated in the Midtown International Theatre Festival in a new play called Ian and His Body by Michael Ricotta.
Palmyra has just closed my show Strings which she co-wrote, co-produced and performed in alongside her friend Anna Rak through thrir theatre company Eastern bridge Theatre Troupe.
It was staged last month at the Access Theatre in Tribeca and she describes it as ‘one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences’ she has had so far.
She said: “It was nerve-wracking putting my writing out there, but we were supported by a passionate and diverse cast, crew and director who helped elevate the play to the nuanced and deeper level it reached on closing night.
“It was very important to both Anna and I to work with people from all backgrounds when tackling the subject of mother-daughter relationships. Hearing foreign voices in the arts helps us steer clear of singular and cookie cutter perspectives, empowering and opening an audience up to the complexities of different cultures, religions and views. “When I watch theatre, I want to be challenged. This is what makes theatre entertaining and engaging.
“It was fulfilling as an actor to speak my own words and thoughts; the show was based on people we knew in our lives and was inspired by our own relationships with our respective mothers.
“Most of the dialogue, circumstances and characters in the play actually come from real life situations that would resurface once we began writing. Having these references or hidden instances in our own lives peppered around the play gave the dialogue a natural and real ‘slice of life’ quality to it.”
The plot revolved around eight-month pregnant Lucy as she reads through a guidebook written for expecting mothers in 1950s Chicago. With each chapter she read, comparable moments take place in the present that not only show how such values are sometimes difficult to uphold in the present day but also how what has always been cannot necessarily translate into what is to come.
The work received rave reviews. One scribe said: “Strings is a wonderful story which so simply makes parallels between how our mothers strive to teach what is ‘right,’ and how such teachings are combated against both changing times and unexpected - and at times off-beat or misconstrued - circumstances.”
Palmyra said: “We really want to start entering the play into festivals next year, so in the meantime I plan on re-drafting and re-working the script. At 22 I somehow managed to write, produce and perform in my own play in NYC and it wasn’t a total disaster. I’m feeling much more ready for what’s ahead.”
The busy, budding actress still has room in her heart for Bahrain and remembers her time in the kingdom with affection.
“I will always have a special place in my heart for the Manama Theatre Club which from what I can see on Facebook is thriving and doing wonderful work!” she said.
The last production she appeared in was Be My Baby when she was 17, encouraged by former club stalwarts Rory and Marina Adamson, who now live in the UK.
They gave her a framed collage of the productions she has been involved in before she left for college which has pride of place in my apartment in Brooklyn.
“Rory took a chance on me after he discovered me in a production of Bugsy Malone where I played a very small role and I remember being so nervous to audition for the MTC at 15,” she said. “I got cast in Fawlty Towers as Polly and from that day didn’t stop.
“They were really a second family to me and all I wanted to do was rehearse and eat Brit Club food with them all day long. I remember doing my A-Level artwork backstage when I wasn’t needed in a scene and shoveling salt and vinegar crisps down my throat.
“The last MTC member I saw was Hannah last year, who gave me this wonderful acting book called The Art of Coarse Acting by Michael Green. She was the one who pushed me to apply for drama school during Be My Baby and I will always be eternally grateful to her. It was the best decision I ever made.
“Even though I am miles away, the minute I land in Bahrain’s sweaty sunshine, am welcomed with a blast of air conditioning inside the airport, and walk across the blue-purple coloured carpets with Batelco signs, I viscerally feel and know I’m home.
“I miss Luigi’s pizza, the kind and caring sense of community and shawarma alley.”
She also wanted to send a message to Angelita, her former housemaid and nanny, who helped raise her over 13 years. “I think of you every day and miss you,” she said. “I’m so jealous of the lucky kids that are in your care now who get to enjoy your incredible spaghetti bolognese. Your kindness, strength and smile are incredible and I love you - thank you for everything you did and continue to do. You’re a real life angel.”
Palmyra has two elder brothers and a sister and her parents, Salma Jabri, a former language teacher at Berlitz, and Joerg Mattner, a geologist, no longer reside in Bahrain. Her mother is living in Canada and works as an interpreter for Syrian refugees seeking refuge in Montreal and her father now owns a farm in Australia.
