Writer/performer Francesca Bolam brings her show Tenner Bag to Camden Fringe this month.
“Set in post-riot Teesside, “Tenner Bag” is a raw and gripping drama about family, survival, and the dark underbelly of a town on the brink.”
Where: The Hope Theatre
When: 15 – 16 Aug
Ticket link: https://camdenfringe.com/events/tenner-bag/
What’s your show about and what inspired it?
Tenner Bag is about a family trying to hold it together in a town that’s falling apart. It’s set in post-2024 riot Teesside, where drugs, tension, and lost potential are everywhere.
Becky comes home from America for a funeral and is thrown straight back into the mess — her family, her past, and the town itself.
The play was inspired by me going home after years away and seeing how much had changed — and how much hadn’t. Teesside has this mix of grit, humour, and heartbreak, but also this heaviness from being left behind.
Simon, the brother, is a blend of the lads I grew up with or the stories they carried — quick-witted, volatile, and stuck between who they could have been and the reality of where they are.
Why should someone come to see your show and what might they expect?
Because Tenner Bag doesn’t sugar-coat anything. It’s raw, funny, and uncomfortably real — the kind of show where you feel like you’re sat in someone’s kitchen as everything kicks off around you.
Expect sharp banter, messy family politics, and the kind of humour that comes from living on the edge of chaos.
It’s about survival, the people you can’t quite leave behind, and what happens when old wounds refuse to stay buried.
How did you make a start in the business?
I trained in New York as an actor, and that’s always been at the heart of what I do. But I’ve been writing since I was young — short stories, bits of poetry — so creating my own work felt natural alongside acting.
Producing came next, and starting Nice Enough Productions made sense because I was already juggling multiple projects.
Tenner Bag grew out of that mix — performing, writing, and building work that feels true to where I come from.
Do you have a favourite type of venue to work in?
I love spaces that feel alive — intimate rooms where the audience is almost part of the scene, or unconventional spaces that transform with each story told inside them.
St. Ann’s Warehouse is my dream venue for that reason. The way they rip apart and rebuild that space for each show is fearless. It feels like the kind of place where Tenner Bag would breathe.
What’s next for the show?
Tenner Bag feels like it’s just getting started. I want it to find a home with a theatre that isn’t afraid of stories that cut close to the bone — the kind of work that makes you lean in instead of sit back.
Whether that’s a northern run, a London transfer, or something unexpected, I’m excited to see where it lands. Long term, I see it living on screen.
The world of Tenner Bag has a cinematic tension — the kind of story that would hit just as hard on film, with every bruise and laugh up close.