Forget Porridge – Mark Thomas’ monologue shows gritty realism of life behind bars
- Amanda Burden
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Ordinary Decent Criminal, Belgrade Theatre from 4-8 November. Directed by Charlotte Bennett.
Review by Amanda Burden.
Most of what I know of prison comes from Ronnie Barker’s 80s sitcom Porridge, so I suppose anything even slightly more up to date would come as a slap in the chops. Even so, the prison of Mark Thomas’s Ordinary Decent Criminal is less of a world and more of a galaxy supercluster away from the cosy joviality of Norman Stanley Fletcher, Godber and Mr McKay. This one-man monologue is gritty Trainspotting-esque realism: the story of Frankie, who drifts from idealistic student to raver, to drug dealer, and finally to prison inmate.
From the outset, Thomas plunges us into the brutality of life inside, conjuring images of Roman gladiators as a kangaroo court tries and beats a suspected grass. A volatile cast occupies his prison: Kenny, damaged and sensitive, who drowns his childhood trauma in music; dead-eyed enforcer/ drug baron De Niro, who rules through menace; and Belfast Tony, whose hardman stance and IRA background hides a ferocious moral code. Inspired by writer Ed Edwards’ own stretch behind bars, each man feels incredibly human, unpredictable and forever one small step away from explosion.
Thomas shifts between characters with impressive precision, altering accent, stance and presence with the smallest of signals. Modestly maintaining in his post-show Q&A that he is first and foremost a stand-up comedian and “no actor,” his powerful characterisation and broad emotional range in this performance tell a very different story.
The set is equally chameleonic. Described by Thomas as an “IKEA Barbara Hepworth,” it’s a complicated tangle of neon-lit metal crowd barriers, which become, by turns, a prison corridor, a cell door, a hospital bed and - most innovatively - a bleak abandoned factory playing host to a rave.
The ending, when it arrives, is abrupt, savage and shocking, but still manages to leave a trace of optimism. As Thomas himself concludes, conflict is inevitable, life is hard, with few happy endings, but people trying to do the right thing always remain – beacons of hope in a rubbish dump of modern-day morality.
Comments