Frank and Percy: Reviews

The Times, Ian McKellen and Roger Allam are note perfect in moving male study – 15 June 2023

★★★★ It’s a formidable duo. Allam is as brilliantly dry as ever, his face all guilelessness and impassivity. When romance emerges, the fact that Percy is a man is rather sweetly unremarkable to him. His buttoned-up naturalism clashes believably with McKellen’s camper, more dramatic style, full of flinging arms and his trademark long linger on the end of certain wordssss. (…) The odd couple effect comes through brilliantly: as Percy reminisces about a 28-year-old toyboy he once had a fling with, with reference to his own ‘dextrous tongue’, Allam’s face flickers between surprise, confusion, horror and delight while also barely changing at all.

Evening Standard, Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in a radical odd-couple romance – 15 June 2023

★★★★ The Daily Mail, Age is no barrier to laughter – 15 June 2023

★★★ Sir Ian McKellen and (probably choosing not to be Sir) Roger Allam are Percy and Frank, the two doyens of English theatre entirely at ease with each other (…) There’s a pleasure to be had in watching two craftsmen go about their work (…)

Broadway World, Review: Frank and Percy – 15 June 2023

★★★★★ Allam and McKellen have superb chemistry on stage.  Allam does what he does best, keeping a straight and expressionless face while McKellen is more animated in his approach. The pair have razor sharp comedy timing, and they need it because this is a wildly funny play.

Theatre Weekly, Funny, heartfelt, and a truly beautiful piece of theatre – 15 June 2023

★★★ Warm performances from Roger Allam and Ian McKellen (…) Allam and McKellen are wonderfully watchable, sharing an easy, believable chemistry and wringing laughs and bittersweet emotion from the intentionally mundane dialogue. (…) Allam’s Frank is the more reserved of the two, but also the more compassionate. Holding his emotions tightly in check at first, he opens up gradually, and by the end of the play is wearing his heart on his sleeve, freed from either shame or need. Allam makes the journey feel clear and completely plausible.

The two great actors have fun as old-timers who form a surprising romantic bond (…) with that zingy Allam timing (…)

The Telegraph, Ian McKellen and Roger Allam charm (…) – 15 June 2023

★★★★ Dream team: Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in Frank And Percy. Both touching and funny, with two great actors working hand in glove.
The Mail +, Touching, funny tale of two old grumps, 18 June 2023

★★★ McKellen bristles with an endearing stubbornness while Allam’s portrait of a man coming to terms with the newly realised dimensions of his sexuality and identity in later life is profoundly moving. (…) But it’s an appealingly comfortable watch, written with a gentle sincerity and played with considerable tenderness.

WhatsOnStage, Frank and Percy with Ian McKellen and Roger Allam – review, 19 June 2023

McKellen and Allam are without doubt one of the great stage double acts. Both touching and funny, with two great actors working hand in glove.

The New European, McKellen and Allam are a charming odd couple, 21 June 2023

Frank and Percy plays at Theatre Royal Windsor from Friday 9 June to Saturday 22 July 2023; and Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 25 July to Saturday 5 August 2023.