Meet recovering addict Frankie, played by renowned political comedian Mark Thomas.
A co-production between Paines Plough, Live Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Ellie Keel Productions, in association with Synergy Theatre Project.
Frankie’s just been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for dealing drugs. When he gets there, none of his fellow convicts are what they seem.
And with his typewriter, his activist soul, and his sore lack of a right hook, he somehow finds his way into their troubled hearts, and they into his.
In the unlikeliest of places, he discovers that the revolution is not dead. It’s just sleeping.
A new play from the writer of the Fringe First winning England & Son and A Political History of Smack & Crack, Ed Edwards reunites with Mark Thomas to tell a tale of freedom, revolution and messy love. Directed by Paines Plough’s Joint Artistic Director, Charlotte Bennett.
“It’s 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.”
“Edwards’s gritty monologue is full of heart and power, delivered with conviction and class.”
“A breathtaking, often breathless achievement, a show that manages to appal, to amuse and to provoke. And bringing it all to vivid life is Thomas’s brilliantly committed and thoroughly convincing performance.”
"It is Thomas – with an excellent grasp of vocal mimicry – who excels as he ricochets across the stage bringing each of the characters to life, revealing not just their words, but also their souls."
"By the end, one man on a sparse stage has conjured up a whole prison – its noise, its boredom, its acts of defiance – leaving the audience breathless. Raw, urgent and unforgettable, this is blistering theatre at its very best."
"Mark spits his lines out with such passion that the audience is entirely sucked in and captivated by 90s prison politics, and this stage play’s advocacy for activism."
"Ed Edwards’s gripping and subtle one-man show"
"Thomas’s evocation of this whole complex scenario, and of all the characters involved, is typically brilliant."
"Brought to dynamic life by Mark Thomas."
Production Images - Pamela Raith
