You don’t need to have seen the last Edinburgh Fringe monologue that playwright Ed Edwards wrote for comedian Mark Thomas to appreciate the new one. But if you caught 2023’s England & Son, it makes for a fascinating contrast with Ordinary Decent Criminal.
England & Son was the harrowing story of an ex-juvenile offender whose life is fatally poisoned right from the start by circumstances outside his control, not least the legacy of British colonial rule as passed down via his violent father. It was gaspingly intense stuff that confirmed that after years of increasingly theatrical solo shows, Thomas could indeed act. Personally, I found it a bit misery porn-y, but it was still impressive
I’m not sure if Ordinary Decent Criminal is a reaction to England & Son so much as an acknowledgement that you can’t really make the same play twice. But while Thomas is again playing a criminal with the same accent, age and mannerisms as Mark Thomas, the title is not ironic. Frankie is a nice guy. Sure, he’s gone to prison for drug dealing. But it’s just a bit of weed, he’s never hurt anyone, has an activist background, a social conscience, and he cares desperately about his partner and her son.
Edwards seems determined to avoid the miserable bombast of his last play
For the most part it’s the story of one man’s journey through the British prison system. There’s a familiarity to the narrative if you’ve ever watched a film or TV show set in jail (Paddington 2 absolutely counts) as Frankie moves in, gets to know the various faces, gets embroiled in the internal politics, etcetera etcetera. Still, people like prison stories, and Edwards both gives us the tropes we want while slightly confounding cliche. It’s definitely more Shawshank Redemption than Oz, but it never quite goes where you expect it to and Edwards seems determined to avoid the miserable bombast of his last play.
There’s also always a little more than meets the eye to his work. If England & Son dwelled on the legacy of colonialism, then Ordinary Decent Criminal is very specifically set in the early ’90s. This is predominantly relevant because the IRA was still active, and it’s Frankie’s interactions with various IRA-adjacent figures – notably a fellow lag called Belfast Tony – that give Ordinary Decent Criminal a distinct flavour. Although there are some broader musings on the nature of terrorism, I’m not sure Edwards exactly has a grand point to make here (unlike in England & Son). But I think he wants to make a case for the IRA as perhaps more complicated and human figures than we tend to think of them now, in a different age of rightwing terrorism.
Thomas is great: I don’t think he’ll ever be a master of accents, but the fact he’s Mark Thomas certainly means there’s an element of goodwill when he’s speaking in Tony’s Belfast rasp. And he’s equally good in a more laid back, more contemplative role than the heart-attack intense England & Son.
If there’s a problem it’s that where its predecessor went too hard, Ordinary Decent Criminal is probably too gentle, meandering interestingly, but with Edwards and director Charlotte Bennett wary of making it an actively feelgood tale when maybe a lil’ endorphin rush is what it actually needs. Or maybe not: it has a curious, abrupt end that completely changes the tone of things but happens so quickly there’s not time to take it in or consider what it might mean. It’s almost a really good play, and I think with a bit of prodding and poking it might still become one. But one thing’s for sure: Mark Thomas can really act and if Ed Edwards’s work is what lures him onstage, then that’s achievement enough.
