New play Capital! explores Edinburgh’s financial history through eyes of Big Issue vendor

Big Issue vendors have featured in paintings, documentaries, comics and songs.

Now, a new play will portray one of our sellers as part of an ‘exploration’ of Edinburgh’s financial history.   

Capital! by Robert Dawson-Scott is opening in Edinburgh tonight. Produced by a group of students from the University of Edinburgh, the play “follows the story of Kate, a working woman from Edinburgh who is trying desperately to help her father out of debt.”

“When she meets Lek the timeless, gender-less narrator of our tale, they both embark on a quest, to find out how it all works!”, the playwright explains.

It’s a timely plight – as the cost of living crisis drags on, some 700,000 people in Scotland are at risk of or in problem debt.

One of the play’s central characters is a Big Issue seller, Dawson-Scott adds.

“He first appears among the crowd of chuggers, Jehovah’s witnesses, dodgy financial advisers and other people after your money who assail the audience as they arrive,” the playwright says. “But when Lek, the main character, arrives to start the play and clears them all away he asks if he can stay and watch – and he is allowed to do so.”

It’s not the first time that Big Issue vendors have inspired writers. Last year, a play immortalised the story of a Big Issue vendor who found himself at the heart of the Occupy movement in London.

The improbable tale – performed at Hackney’s Arcola Theatre in December – was based on the remarkable real-life story of late Big Issue vendor Jimmy McMahon, who was embraced by the community that sprung up opposite the cathedral during the 2011 protest.

Capital! will run for three nights from Tuesday (16 April), at 7pm in 50 George Square, Edinburgh. Tickets can be found here.