Georgina Duncan brings her play ASBO BOZO to the River Room at Riverside Studios, and it proves to be an intelligent, funny, and provoking 70 minutes.
Our protagonist works for the council in Wigan, specifically looking after the run-down social housing and its residents. It’s her 30th birthday, but she’s at work, as usual, and planning a night out with the girls.
Although this is a solo show, Duncan skillfully brings several characters to life from troublesome residents to her ‘idiot’ boss and her vegan friend. Co-directors Colm Gleeson and Will Bishop create a world that moves from breezy affability to chaos without seeming forced.
As a performance, this is a show that makes an audience feel at home (for me, from a neighbouring town, a lot rang true). You feel as if this woman is a friend, someone you may chat with at the bus stop.
Duncan’s workaholic, always forgetting the right work pass, tuning out at meetings, and slipping away from her social life with a lonely life at home, is a woman you have probably met at some point.
Although I did guess one plot twist early on, this is a mature and focused play without resorting to sensationalism. This is a real midweek day and night in a northern town where it rains horizontally, and shops don’t stay open for long.
ASBO BOZO is the perfect example of a solo masterpiece from a true working-class artist. It also contains the word ‘baaa-gains’, which is a definite plus, and does a lot with a background of skew-whiff bookshelves and a desk.
Duncan clearly values and celebrates her roots. Leigh, the town where ASBO BOZO is set, was a cotton and coal town that fell from prosperity as those industries declined. The two stories of Darren and Katie detailed in the play are representative and sadly typical, but given some sensitivity.
ASBO BOZO has its last performance at Riverside Studios on Sat afternoon – tickets here.
4.5 stars
Image credit: Jake Bush