NE playwright Mike Yeaman’s absurdist comedy Frank Sumatra is to be revived in Newcastle and then will travel to London during May.
Bev and Keith are a nice young couple who like to do their bit for the environment and so they spend £10 a month sponsoring an orphaned orangutan in a Sumatran sanctuary. They're also trying hard for a baby. When their adopted orangutan turns up on the doorstep, he’s soon got his grippy feet firmly under the table and they find themselves parents to a hairy, delinquent teenager.
Performed in the style of a live radio recording, Frank Sumatra is described as Paddington Bear gone wrong. And not a bear.
The play was originally commissioned by Queen’s Hall Hexham in 2015 for a short tour of the North East. This is a completely new production, directed by Neil Armstrong (Death at Dawn and numerous pantos at Durham’s Gala Theatre) and featuring Pip Chamberlin, Dean Logan and Hannah Walker.
Frank Sumatra runs at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre from 2 to 7 May and then transfers to Theatre N16 in Balham, London, as part of the Wandsworth Fringe Festival from 9 to 18 May at 8:45PM (3PM Sunday matinée; no shows Friday or Saturday).
Theatre N16 is run by young Blyth-born theatre entrepreneur Jamie Eastlake, who is keen to give North East theatre talent the chance to showcase work in London.
“I loved Frank Sumatra when I read the script,” he said, “and I knew it would be a brilliant way to show off some cracking Geordie talent and humour here in London.”
Yeaman’s comedies Lucky Numbers and Canoeing For Beginners both started out in the North East but have since been performed as far afield as Finland and New Zealand and translated into several languages.