Frank and Percy is a 2023 play by Ben Weatherill. It's a Minimalist Cast story, with everyone except the title characters remaining offscreen.
The play follows an elderly widower living in London (Frank), who starts talking to another man (Percy) when they're both walking their dogs. Idle conversation becomes friendship — and friendship then becomes something else.
Percy's a gay man who's been out for fifty years. Frank was married to a woman for many years, but has always had an awareness that he's not entirely straight. Both of them are carrying their past with them, and there's plenty of scope for it to complicate the future.
The play is structured as a single act with 22 scenes, often with a time skip of weeks or more between scenes.
The role of Percy was originated by Ian McKellen and the role of Frank by Roger Allam.
Frank and Percy contains examples of the following tropes:
- Cone of Shame: Percy mentions that Bruno is wearing a "cone of shame" while he recovers from his neck wound. He's apparently quite miserable about it, as he can't get wet.
- Death by Falling Over: Percy's ex-husband Dennis trips over some damaged carpet in his house, falls down the stairs and breaks his neck.
- Fictional Document:
- Percy's an author and his latest book, What If We Stopped Pretending?, is important to the story. It's about climate change, and is initially presented in a way that suggests it's an attack on climate change denial. Later scenes reveal that it accepts climate change as fact, but proposes that any human attempt to stop it will be futile, so humanity simply needs to accept it and adjust. The backlash ruins Percy's career.
- The penultimate scene consists of Percy reading a letter from Frank. A voiceover from Frank reads it aloud.
- The Ghost:
- Percy's ex-husband Dennis is important to the narrative, and talked about at some length, but never appears onstage.
- The two dogs, Bruno and Toffee, are pictured in some posters and covers, but don't actually appear onstage.
- Minimalist Cast: Frank and Percy are the only characters who appear onstage. Even the dogs, Toffee and Bruno, are always offstage. When they're present for a scene they're off the lead, running somewhere the characters can see them but the audience can't.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: Percy mentions that he likes the idea of dying via spontaneous human combustion in a pub, sitting in a comfortable chair while the football's on. He hopes it would become a talking point for the evening. Frank retorts that it wouldn't distract anyone from the football.
- The Topic of Cancer: Frank's wife Alice dies of brain cancer before the start of the play. Towards the end of the play, the diagnosis and treatment of Percy's thyroid cancer is a major factor, including Percy's fear and initial reluctance to call back regarding test results.Percy: If I do die, if doesn't mean I was weak. Don't let anybody say I lost my fight.
- Voiceover Letter: The penultimate scene, after the couple separate, consists of Percy reading a letter from Frank. The text specifies that this should be handled with a voiceover from Frank.
