★★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres. The Studio. 18 Feb 2026 Media Day

 

When Holden Street brings in an Edinburgh winning show, it is certain to be an Adelaide winning show.

And, here it is.

With rollers on. Hair rollers.

 

Produced by Jasmyn Fisher-Ryner and directed by Tatenda Shamiso, it presents its writer and star in Jade Franks.

 

Franks depicts another Jade, this one an ambitious Scouse gal who defies the British class system to carve an unlikely path into Cambridge University. Not one to let naivete hold her back, she abandons her job at a Liverpool call centre to become a cleaner of not so much the hallowed halls of Academia but the bedrooms of the student quarters. Hence, she is both earning and paying her way at Cambridge and discovering that student life is not so clearly about cleverness as it is about class. Jade has a dire Scouse accent but somehow inches her way into the snooty social scene and even finds romance.

 

Franks tells it with piercingly astute stabs into the smug pretensions of the British upper classes. And she has come to the right place to tell her tale. There is still plenty of schadenfreude in the Colonial Aussie psyche to love a bit of a British class-clash on stage.

 

That Franks is a vivid and able actress telling this tale is all that is needed to make Adelaide Fringe audiences whoop with delight - which is what they are doing now at Holden Street.

 

There are many shades to her characterisation of Jade and many classic characters in her narrative. They populate the stage and evoke our assorted emotions. It’s a terrific production and another feather in the cap for Holden Street’s Fringe Awards.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 18 Feb to 22 Mar

Where: Holden Street Theatres, The Studio

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au