Georgina Duncan’s upcoming play ASBO BOZO takes a look at the life of a Community Safety Officer in a forgotten corner of the North of England. Georgina looks to explore isolation, responsibility, and the emotional toll of supporting people at society’s forgotten fringes, writing from experience and research as a writer-performer from a Northern working class background. We caught up with Georgina for a pixelated pint to dive into the show ahead of its run at London’s Riverside Studios early next month.

You can catch ASBO BOZO at Riverside Studios at various times on dates beginning from March 6th and ending on March 29th. Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.

Jake: Hi Georgina, your show ASBO BOZO focuses on an Antisocial Behaviour Officer. Tell us about her, and what inspired you to take this story to the stage.

Georgina: Bozo has a dry sense of humour. She is unpretentious and a hard worker, and she’s put her work before her own life for quite a few years before the play starts.

ASBO BOZO spans the 24 hours around her 30th Birthday which doesn’t exactly go to plan. I wanted to write something for me to perform that was unmistakably me and that trod that line between humour and heartache as all my favourite plays do.

Coming from a Northern, working class background, I also wanted to write something that represented my roots. I was reading a lot about council estates and ASB work and thought it was a totally compelling, challenging and rich world to set my play in.

Jake: The show explores the relationship between isolation and responsibility, as well as the UK’s ‘forgotten fringes’ – give us an idea of what you’ve found exploring those ideas.

Georgina: In preparation for writing the play, I spoke to a couple of Community Safety Officers from my local council. It was clear to me that the sector (unsurprisingly!) is totally stretched and the people who work in these types of roles desperately want to and do make a huge positive impact. It’s challenging work but incredibly important and everyone has got into it for the right reasons. The show examines the impact this kind of work can have on people’s personal lives. There’s a lot of towns in the North of England, where I grew up, which never really recovered post Thatcher.

There’s a lot of poverty, crime and boarded up high streets and it can, at least from my experience, feel like people in these towns have been forgotten. Having said all that, I also wanted to talk about the brilliant characters who I know make up these communities – their wicked sense of humour, resilience and pride.

Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?

Georgina: I hope people have a good time. My favourite thing about going to the theatre is the 2 hour pub trip afterwards where you dissect every choice and line and moment from the play you have just seen. ASBO BOZO is as funny as it is moving, so I hope people are entertained but are left with lots of food for thought – there should be plenty to chew on over a couple of Guinnesses and a packet of crisps!

Jake: Tell us about your relationship with the cast and crew of the show, and how the show has developed into being performed at Riverside Studios.

Georgina: I have written the show but it has been co-created with Colm Gleeson and Will Bishop. I was kindly gifted some space to R&D the play back in January by the very brilliant and supportive BOLD Elephant and Castle off the back of being shortlisted for their playwriting prize with a different play. The play totally transformed over that week – gifted space to skint, early career creatives is rare and not to be underestimated! Colm, Will and I all trained as actors at LAMDA.

We collaborated back in 2022 with our 5 star show This Be The Verse at the Hen & Chickens Theatre, Islington. We have known each other for years and have incredibly similar tastes and sense of humour so it was a no brainer to work with them again on shaping and building this story.

Colm is also my financé, so it’s nepotism at its finest – I’m biased but he’s brilliant at provoking me and we have a great shorthand when it comes to dramaturgy. We’re also working with Isabel Buchanan for the first time as the show’s Sound Designer, who is a fellow LAMDA graduate (a few years after us). I love the idea of working with other LAMDA alumni.

It felt important to us that ASBO BOZO’s sound be felt as a real presence onstage – it is the other character in the play. Izzy totally ran with the brief from day dot and she is building a superbly exciting soundscape to support the story.

Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?

Georgina: I think ASBO BOZO would be something like a cherry liquor – the initial hit is sweet and crisp but it leaves you with a more sharp and complex aftertaste.

You can catch ASBO BOZO at Riverside Studios at various times on dates beginning from March 6th and ending on March 29th. Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.