A hit at the HighTide Festival in 2018 and at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019, Frankie Foxstone A.K.A The Profit comes to the VAULT Festival in London in this sassy, savvy Walking Tour. This is uproarious, cutting-edge, interactive, achingly hilarious, subversive, immersive satire for our chronically insatiable era.
Described as the granddaughter of Margaret Thatcher, the godless daughter of Boris Johnson, and the lost twin of Ivanka Trump, property developer extraordinaire Frankie Foxstone is the darling of neoliberalism. As one audience member put it: “she’s what happens when you tell your kids they can do anything.”
Gaulier-trained comedienne and international theatre-maker, Amy Gwilliam, has tailored this show specifically for the festival and location, and with whip-smart ad-libbing for each audience, this is a distinguished, dishevelling experience like nothing else at this year’s VAULT Festival.
“You must understand I didn’t make Frankie Foxstone up. A property developer? No way! I was just flicking mindlessly through the Evening Standard property pages left on the tube and I thought Oh Wow! this copywriting is preposterous. So exclusive. Ideal for comedy. And the character hails from my bubbling rage, and pleasure to caricature. (Myself as much as any other.)”, says Amy. “Audiences really go wild for her. It’s catharsis.”
Gwilliam comes from the womb of BAFTA winning Comedy Director, Liddy Oldroyd. She was teething on the set of Not the Nine O’Clock News, potty trained on the set of Spitting Image, had her television debut aged 4 as Julian Clary’s fantasy daughter, and played the drug-dealing best friend of Tony Blair’s daughter in Drop The Dead Donkey. (Aged 13, Amy was totally unprepared for the role!) Liddy died shortly after and though Amy never intended to continue in her mother’s vein, it’s clearly a family business. The breast milk of satire was strong.
“I’m fascinated, terrified and delighted, to be following in Mum’s footsteps. I miss her. And I miss Spitting Image. I think Frankie is a bit of a rubber puppet for these times we are living in! And we need some rubber puppets now”, says Gwilliam.
When she’s not stepping into the high heels of Frankie, Gwilliam works with Clowns Without Borders and Theatre for a Change. Her teaching practice is about rigorous, rebellious theatre, empowering through laughter and creativity. As in her previous work, including Mummy, and the forthcoming StayBless, Gwilliam consistently tackles big topics with interrogative, openhearted wit and larger than life characters.
Frankie Foxstone A.K.A The Profit is at VAULT Festival 28th January to 2nd February 2020.
