Jade Franks, a working-class comic from the Wirral, has transformed her experiences of secretly cleaning toilets at the University of Cambridge into a critically acclaimed theatrical hit. Her play, Eat the Rich (But Maybe Not Me Mates x), is now following a path similar to Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, with development underway for a potential Netflix series.
From College Loos to Fringe Firsts
The autobiographical show, which became an early sell-out sensation at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, won a coveted Fringe First award and has secured an upcoming London run and regional tour. Franks, who scrubbed bathrooms and moved punt boats while her wealthy peers enjoyed traditional university life, fictionalises her alienation and rage at wealth inequality.
"I wasn't watering down any of the fury or the politics," Franks explains in her distinctive Scouse accent. "I was just sneaking it in the back door." The play highlights absurd and painful classist encounters, from dinners conducted in Latin to having her grated cheddar rejected at a party. A particularly biting scene, where her sister is turned away from a college dinner for her attire, is drawn directly from real life.
The Financial Barriers Behind the Laughs
Franks's journey to the Fringe stage was fraught with the very financial barriers her show critiques. She only discovered the existence of student bursaries just before her final exams, having worked clandestinely throughout her degree for fear of breaking university rules. After graduating, a redundancy from a job at London's Royal Court theatre provided a push to create her own work.
However, funding a Fringe run seemed impossible. "There's no way to go to the fringe if you don't have parents that can pay for it," Franks states. She moved back home, went sober, and wrote much of the script while invigilating exams. After a private investor pulled out, she was forced to put costs on a credit card. A last-ditch online appeal saved the production, with donations coming from old school friends, wealthy Cambridge acquaintances, and supportive artists like comedian Jack Rooke.
Using Success to Smash Down Doors
Despite the show's success, it did not turn a profit, as Franks and her team insisted on paying themselves fairly. This reinforced her mission to change an industry model that often requires a safety net of family money. "Fringe should be a place where people can fail," she argues, "but you can't afford to. I couldn't afford to."
Now, with her play set for runs at Soho Theatre, Liverpool Everyman, and Bristol Old Vic, and a TV deal in development with fellow Scouser Philip Barantini's production company, Franks is determined to leverage any major success. Her ambitions extend beyond her own career. She aims to create a business that would secure affordable £10 tickets in commercial theatres for underrepresented audiences and to reshape the Fringe into a more financially accessible space.
"I can't change the system by doing a silly little one woman show," Franks says. But with a Netflix deal on the horizon and a fiercely clear purpose, she is certainly going to try.
