WINCHESTER prisoners and students who shared the stage have won two awards for their innovative production.

Winchester University’s Prison Theatre project won a gold award from an offenders’ arts trust for its production of Our Country’s Good.

The Koestler Trust recognised the efforts of 15 students and 14 Winchester prisoners who rehearsed together for two months, with inmates receiving help on line-learning and performance.

The unusual troupe performed Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play, itself about prisoner theatre, for inmates and the public last year.

One Winchester inmate scooped a non-fiction bronze award for a diary he wrote charting his personal journey through the rehearsals and performance.

Another young prisoner, unaffiliated with the university, won a silver award for a rap song called London Dungeon.

The trust, which recognises hundreds of productions every year, does not publish details of winning prisoners.

Annie McKean, artistic director of Playing for Time, a theatre company which organised the project, said: “There are a lot of people in the prison estate who have never fulfilled their potential. Taking part in arts work can put them in touch with their creativity and their humanity. This work is about pushing the prisoners to do something that often many of them just think they are not capable of.’’ A selection of winning pieces, including London Dungeon, is currently on display at the trust’s annual exhibition in London’s Royal Festival Hall.