Breaking the taboos around addiction
Actor Richard Mylan kept his heroin addiction secret for two decades – then, with the help of his wife, he achieved recovery. His new play, Sorter, explores his experiences and challenges people’s preconceptions about addiction, writes Jenny White...
because of that, I got deeper and deeper and deeper into it.”
He was keenly aware of the stigma around heroin use, so he kept his addiction as secret as possible. His career repeatedly placed him in the public eye – over the years he has starred in numerous hit shows, including Coupling, Belonging, Bad Girls and Waterloo Road.
He was haunted by what had happened to another well-known actor who had lost all his work after his heroin addiction was made public.
“His career was over – one article finished everything, nobody would touch him. I’ve seen that happen quite regularly – if somebody got found out taking a bit of coke or being an alcoholic, that was almost like, ‘Okay, you’re, you’re one of us’, but if you are a heroin addict, it was game over for you, so I was petrified of being found out, petrified of the stigma around it.”
When people did find out about his addiction, they were always surprised.
“It didn’t marry up into their perception of what a heroin addict looks like. But I am one of tens of thousands of functioning professional addicts who are just so scared of coming forward and talking about it, because they’re scared of losing everything.”
Long-running acting gigs such as Coupling and Where The Heart Is kept Richard on the straight and narrow for sustained periods of time, giving him a focus and a reason to stay clean, but gradually his addiction took its toll on his career.
“There was a very long period where I just didn’t care and I hardly worked during that time. I was illegally obtaining methadone and Subutex, which are the substitutes that stabilise addicts, and I was using them to clean up, so technically I wasn’t straight at all.
“I guess I’d become less reliable and my eyes were less alive and that really translates on the camera, especially with film and television, so work opportunities dried up.”
His role in Waterloo Road was one of the longest periods where he stayed clean and during this period he spent time working on his mental health and sense of self-worth. His life took a major upturn when he met his wife Tammie, a make-up artist on the show.
“I just fell completely in love – proper love – and then two or three years into my relationship with Tammie, I fell off the wagon again. I’d already told her about my addiction and when I fell off the wagon I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ She said she’d help me – we’d get through it together – and that was when I plugged into support services and really got help for the first time.
“I had flirted a bit with Narcotics Anonymous and personal therapy in the past, but none of it had worked. But then, being with Tammie, I knew I wanted to marry her and to have a good life. And when she said, ‘I’ve got you, I will support you’, that was it.”
Now, a decade into recovery, his life is transformed. He and Tammie live in Swansea with their young son Acer (Richard has another child, Jaco, with former partner, actress Catrin Powell) and Richard is one of the founders of Grand Ambition, a creative collective based at Swansea
Grand Theatre. Grand Ambition’s first play, Sorter, opens on Friday – and it was written by Richard as a way of exploring and processing his two decades as an addict.
“I wrote the play in lockdown 2020 when we were all forced to sit still and I’d been in recovery for a good while,” he says. “I felt I was going to go mad because it was all in my head and I couldn’t make sense of it all. I couldn’t navigate my mind around it all – it was all just a mess, so I decided to put it down on the page.”
He found the approach difficult, until he hit on the idea of creating two characters to embody his experiences – and then the writing flowed.
The play features a nurse who reaches for the controlled drugs cabinet to erase the pain of childhood trauma and a long-term addict who drowns out the voices in her head by taking tomorrow’s ‘sorter’ early.
As their paths cross on the streets of Swansea, the play asks whether either of them can escape their cycle of shame and whether they just might be each other’s salvation.
Sophie Melville (Royal Court, Shakespeare’s Globe) plays Example A, fresh from success with the Lyric Hammersmith, National Theatre, 59E59 New York and Sherman Theatre co-production of Gary Owen’s Iphigenia In Splott, while Richard plays Example B.
“I hope people will see how intrinsically linked the person you see on the street is to the person who’s a functioning addict,” says Richard. “It’s a visually compelling play, Sophie is a phenomenal actress and our director Francesca Goodridge, who is interim associate director for Theatre Clwyd, is incredible.
“It’s a very cinematic piece of theatre. It’s not depressing – it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”
Explaining why she was drawn to the project, the first professional production she will have premiered in her hometown, Goodridge says: “I’m a Swansea girl, born and bred and so when I first read Sorter, I felt so excited and moved by a play that puts voices of Swansea on the centre stage.
“Sorter, much like Swansea, is unapologetically beautiful and ugly in equal measure. It’s a huge-moment-in-welsh-theatre kind of script. It explores the lives of two very different people, who for all of their experiences, dreams and faults aren’t as dissimilar as we first think.
“It asks us, the audience, to really question our opinions of people living with addiction and encourages us to really see them. To see past our pre-determined opinion because of their circumstances, but to actually try to see the humanity.
“I think it’s incredibly important for audiences to see themselves and their community represented on stage. To better understand the people they pass on the street day to day and to leave the theatre feeling like they have discovered something new about themselves and about the place they live and, ultimately, love.”
The play marks a point of return for Richard – a return to his hometown, where he is giving back to the local community by creating opportunities for home-grown talent through Grand Ambition, and a return to health.
“I lost my way for 20 years and I feel like I’m returning back to who I am minus the crippling depression and anxiety, because I’ve gone to the doctor and managed to find medication that works really well for me,” he says.
“I’m in such a good place – getting married and being a father again, starting a theatre company in my hometown, which I love. It’s a product of recovery and reconnection to your ambition, because addiction robbed me of my ambition and my drive.”
He hopes Sorter will help to boost understanding and change attitudes towards addicts, highlighting that the people we see on the street are only the visible face of addiction.
“It’s not just people on the street. It’s happening in communities, in the workplace. It’s happening everywhere. We’ve all got family and friends who are suffering. As a society we need to challenge our selective empathy response because it’s not right that we consider some addictions more acceptable than others. All addictions should be treated with empathy and respect and understanding.
“I hope people leave the play less judgmental, better informed and able to see the humanity more of the people they see on the street and the people who they know in their communities who are struggling, because nobody chooses that life if they have good mental health. It’s absolute chaos, and nobody would ever want that.
“I just hope people will see the humanity more and challenge the way they respond.”
Being with Tammie, I knew I wanted to marry her and to have a good life. And when she said, ‘I’ve got you, I will support you,’ that was it
■ Sorter begins a very limited run at Swansea Grand Theatre with a preview on Thursday. Performances, including matinees, will run until March 10. Tickets are now available from Swansea Grand Theatre. Every performance will be captioned and BSL interpreter Julie Doyle will interpret performances on March 3 and 9. Performances have an age guidance of 16+, contains strong language and adult themes