Photo: watchlooksee , used under a Creative Commons license
Pete Doherty may be taught Shakespeare by an Oxford student next month whilst behind bars in Wormwood Scrubs. Doherty, serving a 14-week sentence, has the chance to enrol in a Shakespeare workshop to be given at the prison by post-graduate Yvette K. Khoury, currently studying for her DPhil at St John’s College.
Ms Khoury, studying Shakespeare in Arabic for her Doctorate, pledged to give a teaching workshop at a charity auction for her local west London church without knowing who would buy it. When a teacher at Wormwood Scrubs called to say she had bought the pledge, Ms Khoury was surprised but happy to teach the inmates.
The workshop is not until May 19th, and so details remain speculative at this stage, with Ms Khoury saying she will have to ‘play it by ear’. However, she knows her underlying aim will be ‘for them to have a good time, just like with anything else – not teaching as such but a workshop, reading and getting them involved.’
Doherty has been in the prison since April 8th, after failing to attend drug tests as part of a suspended sentence for possession of heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis and the horse-tranquiliser ketamine. Since being inside Doherty has been the subject of claims from tabloid newspapers that he has been injecting heroin inside his cell and that he has been given privileged treatment, with extra bedding and his own cell.
As an inmate, Doherty now has the chance to sign up to educational opportunities such as this one. The former Libertines and current Babsyhambles front-man may perhaps be keen to take up the offer, having dropped out as a
student of the first-year of his English Literature course at the University of London and since become famous for the creativity of his song-writing.
At the same university, Ms Khoury also studied English and achieved a first- class BA, before taking an MA in Shakespearean Studies. She is keen to dispel the fiction that Shakespeare is too difficult to be enjoyed, and hopes this will come across to the inmates.
‘I want them not to be frightened of approaching Shakespeare. A lot of people seem to think Shakespeare is too intellectual, too highbrow… I don’t want them to think of Shakespeare as something monstrous, lurking away.’
Prison officers may be hoping Doherty will attend and sprinkle some stardust on their classes – others, knowing the singer’s renowned self-destructive capabilities, may be less optimistic. When asked about whether Doherty might be one of the twelve inmates she will teach, Ms Khoury said ‘I can’t comment – I don’t know, it’s far too speculative.’
