There was a time when this tale of an ex-student activist getting his political mojo back would have been purely nostalgic. A safe way of indulging in youthful idealism, then going back to neo-liberal reality, but life has been so strange in the last few years that it has an edge.

The ordinary decent criminals are ones that are in prison for non-political crimes, while the rest are ones that are in for terror offences. It’s mostly set in the 1990s, just before the Good Friday Agreement, so the terrorists in this case are the IRA. With a few misgivings, the play is supportive of what used to be known as ‘the cause’, and in its dying moments it links it to the current anti-war movement, giving a visceral insight into how controversial and dangerous it can be to protest.

Frankie Donnelly is in prison for drug dealing. He started taking drugs to cope with the crime and poverty he was surrounded by, and he doesn’t know why he kept on dealing after he became clean. He’s terrified of prison, but he learns to survive. He cares about his fellow prisoners, and they respect him. There’s a sad story about an abused child who becomes violent, and then faces further abuse in prison. Frankie’s girlfriend is a hopeless addict, and the possibility of losing her makes him go back to old habits. An ex-soldier traumatised by his time in the army commits murder. There’s a strong theme of prisoners being trapped in a cycle of trauma and crime, with the system failing to protect the public and failing to help the prisoners.

The IRA subplot leads to the most polemical moments; Frankie is a communist, who has never forgiven socialists for being glad the Berlin wall came down. Which is a little harsh, but understandable considering the triumph of liberal democracy led to an avoidable financial crash, austerity, culture wars, and ‘the death of the liberal Tory party’ according to one excitable hard right former academic on X. Despite Frankie regularly getting on his soap box, it’s not agitprop. This is a very personal story about flawed human beings in a world that often abandons them, and with intense gentleness, it tells us that people matter. How we treat each other, and what we believe in, matters.

It’s a solo show so every part is played by Mark Thomas. It’s become a cliché that comedians make good actors, but it holds true. He is brilliant. So, brilliant that he can stop the show, bring latecomers up to speed with the plot, and restart the show without breaking character or losing momentum. The script by Ed Edwards, the set design, the sound and lights, the direction, they’re all exactly right for this story, from the 1990s indie songs playing as we go into the theatre, to the fairy lights that twinkle on a barrier, to the devastating last line.

‘Ordinary Decent Criminal‘ is at Summerhall – Techcube 0 until Mon 25 Aug 2025 at 11:50