Jade Franks' debut one-woman show, Eat the Rich (But Maybe Not Me Mates x), serves up a deliciously sharp and deeply personal comedy about navigating the alien world of Cambridge University as a working-class Liverpudlian. Staged in the intimate Soho Theatre Upstairs, the production has drawn favourable comparisons to Fleabag but is powered entirely by Franks' own cheeky charisma and Northern wit.
From Liverpool to Oxbridge: A Culture Clash Comedy
The autobiographical show begins with Franks seeing Cambridge as an escape from a soul-crushing call-centre job. Upon acceptance, she quickly finds herself adrift in a sea of upper-class students—the Tillys, Millys, and Jillys—and commits a series of unforgettable cultural faux pas. The audience learns, through Franks' gleeful recounting, that you should never bring a bag of grated mozzarella to a cheese-and-wine night, and that a student's embossed leather Hermès notebook does not mean his name is "Hermes".
Using a minimalist set—a wheely office chair, a corded phone, and a school desk crammed with costume changes—Franks conjures the disorienting frenzy of freshers' week. A pulsating soundtrack featuring Dua Lipa's "One Kiss" transports viewers between awkward Cambridge club nights and dorm-room encounters with a Hugh Grant lookalike. Unaware of the financial support available and flouting university rules, Franks takes a job cleaning student halls, a decision that becomes a rich source of both tension and humour.
More Than Money: The Nuanced Politics of Class
While the premise could easily fuel a simplistic "posh vs poor" narrative, Franks deftly avoids sermonising. Instead, she uses hun culture, stand-up rhythms, and sharp observation to explore a more complex truth. Class is presented not merely as a financial divide, but as a labyrinth of culture, access, and inherited belonging.
One of the show's standout moments features the droll student "Hermes", who patiently maps out the Oxbridge social ecosystem for Franks. He explains that hierarchy isn't a simple binary of state versus private school, but a nuanced spectrum where a student from a "good" state school can rank above someone from a "cheap" private school. Franks extends this analysis beyond campus, contrasting the artist who racks up credit-card debt to stage a play (her own experience) with one who can call in a favour to secure a stately home as a filming location.
A Unique Voice Primed for the Screen
Fans of Big Boys and Fleabag will find much to enjoy here, though Eat the Rich is notably lighter and more freewheeling. The show is at its most potent when Franks leans fully into comedy, firing off relatable observations about what the truly wealthy do for fun, or the gulf between a parent's library and a mum who reads Fifty Shades of Grey on a Kindle.
It is in these moments that Franks' irresistible charm does the heavy lifting, allowing the show's politics to land without feeling didactic. The performance is a testament to making your way on wit, resilience, and hard work when you aren't born a Tilly, Milly, or Jilly. The future looks bright for this fresh voice: Netflix has already backed Franks' vision for a small-screen adaptation.
Eat the Rich (But Maybe Not Me Mates x) is running at Soho Theatre until 31 January 2026. Tickets are available via the theatre's website.
