A COMPELLING and powerful show performed in Clydebank last week helped raise awareness amongst Bankies as it told the horrifying tales of four people subjected to human trafficking.

The Rah Rah Theatre Company are touring around Scotland with their production of “My Mind is Free”, and chose the Morison Memorial URC in Clydebank for their show on Friday, October 19.

It used a mixture of physical theatre and multi–role playing to portray the epic journeys and terrible risks that desperate people will go to in the pursuit of what they believe to be a better life – only to find that they are then exploited and that they end up in a far worse position than when they started.

Jude Spooner, managing director of Rah Rah, told the Post: “The idea for the project arose in 2013 when I was saddened to hear of the horrific facts about modern day slavery.

“I started thinking about the resources I had and what my artistic response was to this crime. I thought that we could really make a stand by creating a piece of theatre.”

Each character in the show is based on an amalgamation of real stories from survivors of trafficking and represent the most common forms: domestic servitude, sexual exploitation or forced marriage, forced labour and bonded or child labour.

One of them, Violeta, is originally from Romania, but has been brought to the UK by her “boyfriend”, who makes her work in a brothel.

Jude added: “During rehearsals we all went out in the back of a van to try and experience a glimpse of what it must be like and, although it was for only 30 minutes, it felt like a life time.

“The harrowing realisation of what so many victims must go through daily in search of a better life really hit home.”