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Faye Milligan

Edinburgh Evening News

Obituary... The Herald ... October 13 2003

Article by NEIL COOPER

Faye Milligan; born April 9 1958, died October 4, 2003.

As pillars of the community go, Faye Milligan made her mark more than most. Not that this doyenne of the arts in Edinburgh's Craigmillar estate was ever hoity-toity, or made herself out to be better than her neighbours in a district that is often derided publicly, but has at its heart a fierce pride and sense of its own independence. Rather, as an actress, playwright, director, poet, singer, and comedian, she was in the thick of things on her own doorstep, never losing sight of her roots or putting on the airs and graces.
Faye's death from a heart attack at the age of 45 while on holiday in Gran Canaria, has cruelly cut down an irrepressible life force that may have been bound up with the simple desire to entertain, but, within the context of her endeavours, pushed forward real social change in a manner many politicians might scratch their heads at, while other worthies can only pay abstract lip service to.
Yet, in her dual roles as both a performer and an activist sitting on or chairing various local committees, Faye was achieving exactly the same thing. Through the power of laughter, she was making things better, bringing, not just light relief, but some real joy to people's lives.
Faye's own laugh was unmistakable. Rough-hewn and throaty from years of heavy smoking, no matter how big an auditorium, so infectious was it she could be heard from a mile off.
Faye Milligan's empathy with her people was understandable. One of a big family of five sisters and a brother born and raised in Craigmillar, she discovered her abilities as a performer from an early age, when her affinity with bawdy back-street humour found in the clubs as well as the touring theatre shows from the likes of 7:84 and Wildcat, then both in their heyday, suggested that, despite her background, she too could get up onstage. If only it had been that simple.
This was at a time in the early 1980s, when, despite the vicious government of the day, local councils still understood the value of investment into areas like Craigmillar, and community arts thrived because of it. Faye's natural flamboyance led her to become involved with Craigmillar Festival Society, with whom she became a pivotal figure.
CFS-run arts centre, The Jack Kane Centre, became the natural hub of all this activity. As well as being a key venue for the then Edinburgh District Council's community touring circuit, opening its doors to theatre companies that normally only played city centre venues, CFS had the magnificent audacity to put on its own work. Pantomimes and plays were produced on a shoestring. Faye's larger than life countenance, married to a common touch forged in the school of hard knocks, made her a distinctive voice of authority for such outings.
She delighted, too, in the fact that the likes of Jo Brand and other big-name Fringe acts from whom she took inspiration, bothered themselves enough to play special one-off gigs in her neighbourhood.
Faye's confidence grew, and, following a community project initiated by 7:84's John Haswell, Faye was offered the chance to become a fully-fledged professional actress, and gained the Equity membership crucial to such an undertaking. Small parts in the likes of Taggart and the television version of The Steamie, a play that could've been written for her, followed. Yet, despite her experience, a more formal drama training escaped her.
In an interview for Luvvies And Rude Mechanicals?, a Scottish Arts Council study of community drama, Faye outlined her audition and interview for Glasgow's RSAMD, and the shameful way her interrogators questioned how someone from her background was hoping to pay for her training. As insulting as this was, Faye was made of sterner stuff, and returned to Craigmillar, bloodied but unbowed.
How ironic when, in 2001, Faye gained a place at La Commedia del'Arte, the physically based theatre school in Italy. This was a major victory, and, after the end of the three-month course, she vowed to apply her skills with young people back in Craigmillar, who called her Auntie Faye.
When the old CFS was disbanded, and the new Craigmillar Community Arts constituted, Faye was the natural choice as Chair. From this position, she helped initiate extensive drama programmes, including last year's much talked about Grease – Niddrie Style. Faye was also part of the steering group for Craigmillar Community Arts' ongoing bid for lottery money, which she was working on before her ill-fated Spanish trip.
Of late, Faye had also penned and performed in a stage adaptation of Kicking Down The Doors, a novel set in Craigmillar, for her own Hand Rolled Productions. In it she played a grandmother teaching her brood the importance of drama and dance in their community since it was built in the 1960s. If anyone knew the difference such things could make to peoples lives, it was Auntie Faye, who'd overcome being patronised to become a star. Maybe not in the traditionally shallow way our celebrity culture is prone to, but then, Faye had more integrity than that.
In the same interview for Luvvies And Mechanicals?, Faye outlined a philosophy with typical bluntness, that politicians should pay heed to.
" The most important thing," she said, "is talking to people in communities – because they're the ones with the problems – and listening to them. So many do not listen. It's a massive thing – listening. We can talk till we're blue in the face but they will not listen, they ignore it."
Faye Milligan has left a big gaping hole at the heart of Craigmillar's arts community. Her spirit, of true unaffected grit delivered with a cheeky, unabashed sense of fun, will linger, inspiring others to fill that hole, and keep her legacy alive.