Georgina Duncan is an actor and writer from East Lancashire who graduated from LAMDA in 2018.
Her first play, Small Vessels, was long-listed for both BOLD Theatre’s and the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s playwriting competitions, and reached the top 2% of submissions for the Papatango New Writing Prize. Her second play, Sapling (Formerly known as In Memoriam), was shortlisted for BOLD Theatre’s and Druid’s playwriting competitions. A rehearsed reading of the play was held at The Bush Theatre. She’s just completed The Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab and Theatre503’s Wandsworth Writes, and in 2024 was commissioned to write a new play, Penalty for Improper Use, for LAMDA Mish Mash Festival. The play was subsequently selected to have a rehearsed reading at Theatre503.
Her new play ASBO BOZO now arrives at Riverside Studios and we caught up with Duncan to find out more about the play and its development.
Q&A with Georgina Duncan
What can you tell us about ASBO BOZO?
ASBO BOZO takes place in a forgotten town in the North West of England and follows BOZO, an Antisocial Behaviour Officer, over a 24 hour period on her 30th birthday. ASBO BOZO is a play about isolation, responsibility, and the emotional toll of supporting people at society’s forgotten fringes. It’s a day in the life of someone who gives her all to others – and gets nowt back.
What was the original inspiration for the show?
Well, I started writing ASBO BOZO whilst I was an understudy on The Mousetrap in the West End earlier this year. It was the perfect time to do some daydreaming in the dressing room. I was reading a lot about council estates and ASB work and thought it was a totally compelling, challenging and rich world to set a play in.
In preparation for writing the play, I spoke to a couple of Community Safety Officers from my local council (they’re the guys who do the top down policy on Community Safety – ASB Officers do the face to face meetings – this is one of the things I learnt at this meeting!). 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.
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!
You’ve co-created the show with Colm Gleeson & Will Bishop – what was the creative process like?
Ahh it’s been brilliant to work with the guys. I have written ASBO BOZO but it has been totally co-created with Colm and Will.
We all trained as actors at LAMDA and first professionally 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. I love them both dearly and they’re both very talented writers in their own right (if you like weird and eerie stories, check out their Audible play California in Norfolk as part of the LAMDA Gnr8 series – it’s sensational.) Colm is also my financé, so it’s nepotism 101 – I’m biased but he’s genuinely 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. There’s some continuity around our theatrical language and we’ve all got to support each other in this industry.
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.
Did you always envisage performing in the show?
Yes I think so – at least for this first rendition of the play. I wanted to write something that I could 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. The play is entirely fictional but there’s certainly a lot of me in there – my rhythms, humour etc. I really love the idea of seeing someone else’s interpretation of the character down the line.
Is there anything you hope audiences take away from ASBO BOZO?
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!
ASBO BOZO is at Riverside Studios, London, from 6 to 29 March 2025
