Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Ordinary Decent Criminal.
Paines Plough
Genre: Theatre
Venue: Summerhall.
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Recovering addict Frankie is sentenced to three and a half years for dealing, can he maintain his sobriety and morals?
Review
Known primarily as a comedian, activist and theatre maker, Mark Thomas in this Paines Plough production makes a rare move into what we would call “acting”, playing a character. This is his second collaboration with the playwright Ed Edwards, following on from England and Son, which explored similar themes of masculinity and a failed system. He plays Frankie, an addict who is sentenced to three and a half years for dealing. Inside, he stives to remain sober, and to not be drawn into illegal activities. However, the story is not just about his prison sentence. Through Frankie, the play is an exploration of protest, from his time as a communist student through to future protests with his children after his release.
It is a committed, energetic performance, and Thomas really demonstrates his acting skills. Frankie’s innocent misunderstanding of prison life is nicely portrayed, as his dawning awareness of danger and how to survive. The complexities of prison life are demonstrated through a host of characters, and Thomas effortlessly shifts between Frankie, to Bron, (an ex-Para), Belfast Tony, (of the provisional IRA), “De Kero”, Kenny and others, including the prison officers. The pace is excellent throughout, and Thomas provides a strong clarity to each character, aided by a subtle soundscape that gives us the prison environment. It’s unexpected moments of tenderness and friendship that are particularly strong, these drawing up the lines he doesn’t want to cross, and the challenges he has to overcome to help his friends, and himself.
The set by Lydia Denno, is minimal but highly effective, barriers suggest limits and protest, and a toilet provides a seating area, and Charlotte Bennett’s direction makes the play eminently watchable. Politics is the harsh reality, the wall if you like, that Frankie keeps coming up against, and holding onto his principles is the engine of the piece, and dovetails into Thomas’s long history of protest. There is, perhaps, a little too much of this and the script, in places, feels a little didactic. The ending, after Frankie is released, feels a little rushed, and the conclusion, swift and shocking, doesn’t feel as earned as it could be. Nevertheless, see it for a committed, assured performance from Mark Thomas.
