This is a work of fiction.

Any names, characters, events or locations depicted are the product of the imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

It's also a kind of history play.

I'll admit that there are plenty of gaps, but that's OK.

You can fill them in.

Let's begin.

Award-winning theatre-maker Andy Smith presents a new piece of theatre telling a story from the north. The story of a life. The story of our lives. Exploring some of the events of the last eighty years alongside the experience of a man who has lived through it, the work looks to examine as well as challenge some of our ideas of identity, location and history.

Created as part of Fuel's New Theatre in Your Neighborhood project. Co-commissioned by They Eat Culture. Supported by Live at LICA.

The Preston Bill is a new monologue from acclaimed theatre maker Andy Smith. Telling the story of the life of a man from this city, it reflects on the socio-political and historical shifts of the last eighty years by placing everyday moments alongside extraordinary global events. Commissioned and produced by Fuel for the New Theatre in Your Neighborhood project, The Preston Bill can be presented in any room that can be turned into a theatre for its duration. It has been performed in a social club, a gallery, and around a pub table as well as in more conventional and traditional theatre spaces.

This volume also contains the texts of two earlier works, commonwealth and all that is solid melts into air, which have also been presented as a double bill under the title two from a smith.