EDINBURGH 2018: BWW Q&A - The Political History Of Smack And Crack

BWW catches up with Ed Edward to chat about bringing The Political History of Smack and Crack to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about The Political History of Smack and Crack

History shows that drug dealing on any significant scale requires political protection at the highest level. It also shows that political protection of that kind has almost without exception taken place because the biggest powers in the world are fighting rebellions and revolutions

The problem is, how to tell that story and make it a piece of theatre, and not a political tract! If you come and see my play, I think you'll agree I've managed to do that, even though there is plenty of history there too. How? Come and see.
What inspired the play?

Almost an entire generation of working-class youths - of my generation - suddenly, after 1981, finding themselves using or selling heroin, as if from nowhere. But it wasn't from nowhere.

How does it differ from most plays we have seen about heroin?

There's almost no drug-using in the play, even though the main protagonists are life-long junkies. Usually with a play about smack, it's all about the degradation and dereliction, this is about love and loyalty and rage. There is some hard drug use, of course, but it's just not about that.

Why do you feel it is particularly relevant just now?

There are still 85,000 using heroin addicts in Britain, despite it peaking in the late 1980s at 330,000. But, again that's not it. I think it's relevant today partly because history teaches us who we are as a people. And as a people, it seems to me we're lost and we need to know who we are really. Mostly, though, it's about knowing your enemy. For the next time they come at you.

What do you hope audiences take away from the show?

Love, rage and knowing who the enemy is.

What is next for The Political History of Smack and Crack after the Fringe?

We've got a three-week run at The Soho in London and are then in Manchester in November at the International Arts and Homelessness Festival.

The Political History of Smack and Crack runs 3-26 August (not 7, 14, 21), 5:30pm (60 minutes). Paines Plough's ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall, Summerhall Place, Edinburgh. Tickets are available from https://festival18.summerhall.co.uk/event/the-political-history-of-smack-and-crack/

Photo credit: Matt Tullett

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