Franks and Shamiso join forces to create an unforgettable, daring and hilarity-filled show offering an honest glimpse into being working class and making it to Oxbridge
By Hamza Jahanzeb
2 August 2025
Right, I’ve got a story to brag about. Want to know why, eh? Well, I bought a ticket for Eat The Rich (but maybe not me mates x) a.k.a ETR for a meagre £13, when it was announced earlier in the year that Jade Franks’ (Liberation Squares) collaboration with Tatenda Shamiso (No I.D., A Streetcar Named Desire) was initially announced. I was truly excited. Now, throw into the mix one of the producers behind For Black Boys … in one Jasmyn Fisher-Ryan of JFR Productions, and I was well and truly sold.
WHAT IS THE SHOW ABOUT?
The show’s billed nas the following:
If there’s one thing worse than classism and the disparity of wealth in this country… It’s FOMO. The plot of Hannah Montana. If Hannah Montana was a Scouser. And instead of a pop star leading a double life, she is a Cambridge Student trying to conceal the fact she is working as a cleaner. ETR is a comedy which demonstrates the myth of meritocracy, the sacrifices we make to get ahead and who, in the end, these decisions will always disproportionately affect. Jade Franks Fringe debut.
Everyone, at some point, will have to try to break away from the double life they lead. That’s what I believe is the success of this show, for it resonates with so many people for different reasons. In the case of Jade in the play, she’s the first person in her family to go to university, Jade has had to learn another world of code-switching. Not only that, there is also the (exhausting) mental gymnastics that come with this one of the world’s revered institutions being a place where the upper echelons mingle, coupled with age-old practices (latin, anyone?) that hone in on the way some educational institutions across the UK are still stuck in the past.
There’s a brief momentary whistle-stop tour of Jade pre-Cambridge days. These come in the call centre’ and the characters on the phone, each delivered with gusto and real convincing. I also loved that the play’s dramaturgist worked extremely hard in ensuring that the supporting characters allo have distinct and separate mannerisms Further, we all have played bingo. Hence why the effective wording of the types of callers who call – along with the wider and more repugnant stereotypes of Liverpool are quite telling on insular worldviews. Jade flies the flag for Liverpool moving from the maritime city towards her ‘big’ Cambridge college. The deliberate not naming if this was really effective in heightening a moment of comedy. At the university, whilst not really being supposed to, Jade takes on a cleaning job with Chrystyna, whom Jade carries out her shifts with. As well as this, we meet some other characters: from ‘Tilly, Milly & Gilly’ to Greg who is a soon-to-be love interest from a total wank-tastic rah-rah background. Coupled finally in with her sister Laura (Franks steals the scene whereby there’s a riotous formal dinner), we are all living in Jade’s world told through the main actor (Franks).
WHAT WAS IT LIKE?
Really intimate, Off the bat, we know that this show’s sparse set – a desk, with the stylised title plastered across it, and a baby pink stool – means this will need someone with massive stage presence to command a small intimate audience. And boy does Franks certainly fills that in this clever, meaningful and witty play. Also, as someone who is visiting the Edinburgh Fringe (in 2025) for the first time the space where ETR takes place is ‘Bunker 1’ and barely seats forty punters. It’s an actual bunker, and the fellow audience members have all paid – like me – to see Ms. Jade Franks. The intimacy offered in the space only elevated the action from the one-woman show: an impressive feat, where the dialogue sparks multiple occurrences of familiarity making audience members instantly at east. I had a gentleman sat near to me who raved about the fact they had come to watch as they are a Liverpool Football Club (the poster for the show displays Franks in a LFC jersey). Yet they too were just so impressed – like me – with the astute awareness of Franks in creating a world where the underdog is going to be a winner.
Along the way, both Franks and Shamiso take the audience on their own Scouse inauguration, if you were. It’s lucid storytelling, bringing real moments of heartbreak, laughter and immense joy that make you care. You’ll feel the highs and low, and are ricocheted into the demise when an important plot point is revealed (not mentioning this, as you need to watch it to find out!). Ultimately, the piece stirs a lot of insights that never were presented in staged works, and evokes feelings of anger against injustices yet at the same time allows you to quietly ruminate. There are references to ‘genocide’, and it feels like it’s on the right side of history.
In short, if you can bottle this show into a feeling, I would carry it around with me as a bottle of tonic. It fizzes, sparkles and also lifts you up.
For me, some the most engaging pieces of theatre are those whereby the words of the playwright zing off of the page, and they do that and then some. Franks’ marvellous Jade had each and everyone of the audience members in the palm of her hand of the audience. There is minimal interaction, but is enough to break the fourth wall but still provide a riveting of whom Franks interacts with at the right moments. There is a precise line delivery at all times, and even an impressively drink break that is cleverly moulded into the action the text presents. All in all, the audience like myself were gripped by the seamless unravelling of the drama. Oh boy, there’s lots of it. Namely due to the person Jade is dating (Greg) being an engineer and from a whole other world (never mind the class!).
During the show, I also have to remark to also state how great I felt that the direction by Tatenda Shamiso was. When the character of Denise (the co-worker in the call centre) is propped, her legs switch in a manner that is consistent. the bending of the knee creates a mannerism which identifies them.
Similarly, there is Lighting design – by Zoe Beeny – is subtle, but rather effective in this piece. There are some dream sequences (three, off the top of my head if I remember correctly) which felt so realistic. Not least as they are enhanced by a bright pink light that bathes Franks as she plays Jade in such earnest and believability. These scene stealing moments are envisaged and executed with intention, integrity and comedic timing.
Moreover, no seat is a bad seat in this show, and I’d recommend that you snap up your tickets to this show early. For once the Fringe in Edinburgh ends, this polished piece has legs, and an ability to transcend generations and show relevance in today’s Britain meaning it is ready-cooked show prepared for take off (quite literally!) in other theatre spaces. I can envisage this already in half a dozen British producing houses, myself.
I was delighted to have earlier picked up a leaflet promoting the show ( which was much more innovative than other shows I hasten to add, with it being printed rectangular purple twenty pound note-shaped flyer with Jade wearing her hair in rollers). Hilarious. I seemed to have also made a new friend in the aunt Joy, who said how she’d supported her in previous plays and productions. An endearing family affair, if you were. I positioned myself, and I was captivated. Throughout this play, Franks delivers poignant, heartwarming and witty piece as delivered with pizzazz.
If anything, I know that a certain (Queen) Jodie Comer would be a great Jade character were it to go for TV or Film (I am praying hard for this eventuality), and I look forward to seeing it performed up and down the country; and to me, a play like this ought to even be considered to show class-related issues on the British curriculum.
As much as it chastises the upper classes for being so mindless, it does offer an intrinsic examination of how ‘diversity initiatives’ are hollow and tend to serve the well-to-do in mere box-ticking exercises.
This is a remarkable and unforgettable play from two of Britain’s brightest theatrical minds, and one you wouldn’t want to miss if you’re in Edinburgh for the 2025 Fringe festival.
🎟️Until 25 August only: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/eat-the-rich-but-maybe-not-me-mates-x
