‘Scrubbing the Ivory Tower: Jade Franks Exposes the True Cost of Elite Spaces in ‘Eat the Rich’’
There is an undeniable, lightning-in-a-bottle energy vibrating through the Soho Theatre’s Main House, and it all originates from one woman. Fresh from a critically acclaimed, award-winning run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a wildly successful winter trial run, Jade Franks’ largely autobiographical solo show, Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x), returns to London with the supreme confidence of a production that knows exactly what it wants to say – and precisely how to make you laugh while saying it. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a flawless masterpiece of modern British theatre.
The premise carries a classic, almost Legally Blonde-esque charm, but with a distinctly British, razor-sharp class consciousness. Prompted by a condescending call-centre customer who assumes her Scouse accent equates to a lack of intelligence, Jade channels her righteous fury into a flawless personal statement and blags her way into the University of Cambridge.
Yet, the fairy tale quickly collides with a bleak economic reality. Stranded in an alien sea of public-school privilege and unaware of available university financial bursaries, Jade is forced to break strict Oxbridge rules by taking a term-time job. What follows is a brilliant, deeply uncomfortable double life: by day, she navigates awkward tutorials with the interchangeable elite – vividly satirised here as “Tilly, Milly, and Jilly” – and by night, she secretly scrubs their toilets and hoovers their student halls alongside her Polish co-worker, Kristina.
Franks is an absolute hurricane of a performer. Dressed in falsies, high heels, and tight gym wear, she commands the stage – configured with only an old school desk, a rolling office chair, and a pastel-pink corded phone – with ferocious, magnetic charisma. Director Tatenda Shamiso keeps the 60-minute monologue moving at a breakneck, propulsive pace that leaves the audience utterly breathless. This relentless momentum is amplified beautifully by Roly Botha’s heavy, thumping house music sound design and Zoe Beeny’s clever lighting shifts, which seamlessly plunge the audience in and out of Jade’s spiralling, existential inner monologues.
Where Eat the Rich truly triumphs, however, is in its refusal to settle for easy, cartoonish villainy. Despite its provocative title, Franks’ script treats the British class system with an astonishing, mature nuance. Class here is weaponised not just through bank balances, but through culture, language, and an inherited sense of effortless belonging. Jade doesn’t burn the institution down; instead, she tries to survive it, even making genuine friends along the way, like the upper-class peer she affectionately labels “Hermes” simply because of his designer gear. Franks strikes a perfect, miraculous balance between laugh-out-loud observational comedy and deeply felt, righteous anger.
The bittersweet climax – where Jade’s double life is exposed and she is met with superficial tolerance rather than genuine acceptance – leaves a haunting, profound impression long after the house lights come up. Eat the Rich is an incredibly vital, hilarious, and deeply moving piece of working-class theatre that speaks volumes about modern Britain. With a Netflix adaptation already officially on the horizon, Jade Franks has firmly solidified herself as one of the most exciting, authentic new voices in British culture. An absolute triumph – five stars are simply not enough.
Eat the Rich runs until 3rd July. Tickets are available here.