Awards

• Winner of Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2025

Overview

'This is what it feels like to have something to lose. This is why people only fight when they've got nothing to lose.' It's the early 1990s and recovering addict Frankie Donnelly has just been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for dealing drugs. None of Frankie's fellow convicts are what they seem. In the most unexpected of places, he discovers that the revolution is not dead. It's just sleeping. Ordinary Decent Criminal by Ed Edwards is a one-man story of freedom, revolution and messy love. It was first performed on a tour of the UK in 2025 – including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – directed by Charlotte Bennett and starring renowned political comedian Mark Thomas. It was produced by Paines Plough, Live Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Ellie Keel Productions, in association with Synergy Theatre Project. This edition also includes the stirring short play Sanctuary which explores the true-life story of Sri Lankan communist Viraj Mendis, who spent two years seeking sanctuary in a Manchester church in the 1980s.

Full Product Details

9781839044823

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Immensely watchable' * The Stage * 'Superb... a story that grips you from first to last, offering characters to care for and a life story shaded with hair-raising drama, comedy shaded from grey to gallows, and underpinned by a fundamental belief in the power of rebellion' * Quinntessential Review * 'Unflinching... a clear-eyed look at systemic failure... Edwards' writing crackles with urgency... A powerful reminder that the revolution isn't dead; it's locked up, waiting for someone to listen' * Theatre & Tonic * 'Gritty... full of heart and power' * British Theatre Guide *

'Immensely watchable' * The Stage * 'Superb... a story that grips you from first to last, offering characters to care for and a life story shaded with hair-raising drama, comedy shaded from grey to gallows, and underpinned by a fundamental belief in the power of rebellion' * Quinntessential Review * 'Unflinching... a clear-eyed look at systemic failure... Edwards' writing crackles with urgency... A powerful reminder that the revolution isn't dead; it's locked up, waiting for someone to listen' * Theatre & Tonic * 'Gritty... full of heart and power' * British Theatre Guide * 'A strikingly vivid portrait of the UK as it was around the turn of the millennium, as seen from its dark and revealing underbelly; a portrait powerful both in itself, and in the extent to which it captures the forces that still shape our society today, for better and for worse' * Scotsman *

Author Information

Ed Edwards is a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include: Ordinary Decent Criminal (Paines Plough, 2025); England & Son (Edinburgh Fringe & Manchester HOME, 2023); and The Political History of Smack and Crack (Edinburgh Fringe & Soho Theatre, 2018). He has had several original plays broadcast on Radio 4 as well as short films on Channel 4 and BBC2, and has written for several continuing TV drama dramas. He is co-artistic director of Most Wanted Theatre, which he runs along with Eve Steele.

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