5 Minutes with Tatenda Shamiso | Director of 'Eat The Rich'

Tatenda is a director, writer, dramaturg and educator with origins from Zimbabwe, Belgium and the United States. He is an Arts Foundation Fellow in Theatre Writing, and received the 2023 Evening Standard Theatre Award in Emerging Talent (NO I.D., Royal Court Theatre).

Tatenda first came to Bristol Old Vic as Associate Director on Nancy Medina's production Choir Boy (which has just been revived at Theatre Stratford East) and they quickly got the band back together with A Good House, a BOV and Royal Court co-production. He is currently developing the TV adaptation of NO I.D. with Fifth Season, and has served in writers rooms on two new comedy series for Channel 4.

Most recently Tatenda has directed Jade Franks’s award-winning Edinburgh Fringe debut, Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) which is arriving in our Studio this week for a sell-out run. We grabbed 5 minutes for a long-overdue catch up...

On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you to be back in Bristol?

ELEVEN! Since Nancy’s inaugural season at Bristol Old Vic, this city has become a beloved artistic home away from home. It is such a joy to be back and looked after by this theatre’s phenomenal team.

What do you think Bristol audiences will think of the show?

Something I love about Bristol audiences is that they love both to laugh and to listen in equal measure. That’s the mode of attention that this show thrives on. I hope Bristol delights in Jade’s charismatic storytelling, laughs with us, rages with us a little, and takes some space to see themselves in the story.

Tell us about Eat The Rich and why it's really hit a nerve!

In a nutshell, Eat the Rich is about a Scouse girl who gets into Cambridge and experiences the culture clash between her Northern working class identity and this ultra-elite institution. During our brief stint of flyering in Edinburgh, I’d often say something like, “It’s a barrel of laughs, but we’ve got some tastefully enraged class critique threaded throughout the show.” I think the work has struck a nerve because Jade’s story allows audiences to consider their own place in the class system and provides a space for folks to laugh at the absurd intricacies of those politics, find solidarity through all the ways everyone is affected by classism, and reflect on how that shapes who we are and how we have to edit ourselves to fit in. We’ve been astounded by the response so far, and I hope the show continues to offer that experience in the remainder of our tour.

I've seen the show described as like Hannah Montana if Hannah Montana was a Scouser - how do you connect personally to the story? Being neither Hannah Montana, nor from Liverpool?!

Who told you I wasn’t Hannah Montana?! I’d rock a blonde wig. 

That being said, this story definitely does come from a place which is far from home for me as a Californian without a secret pop-star alter ego. The beauty of what Jade’s done with Eat the Rich is through her ultra-specificity, her experience of isolation and otherness feels universal. 

I spent a few years at a pretty fancy international school when my family moved from the US to Switzerland, and my experience of being Black and queer and middle class in a vastly majority white school full of mega-wealthy trust fund babies didn’t feel all that different from Jade’s Cambridge odyssey. A lot of audiences have shared how similar their class culture shock experiences have felt from all over the globe, from education to new jobs to moving cities.

What's the process been like? Is it hard directing a performer who is also the writer?

The process has been a joy, a challenge and a blessing. For much of our creative team this show has been our first big sellout and first international tour. The love and passion that comes with working with trusted friends and collaborators on new terrain has been felt throughout our entire journey.

It’s a different kind of job directing a performer who’s also written the play - you’re implementing your interpretation of the text with the person who created it in the first place! In mine and Jade’s case, we’ve formed a very loving creative collaboratorship. Jade’s acting work is deeply embedded with her creative impulses and vision as a writer, and I think that makes her performance feel all the more truthful. I’m so grateful for her trust, openness and commitment to our process as a duo.