Andrew Frank’s ‘Monkey Sermon’ is a warm, yet uneven combination of stand-up comedy and unscripted autobiography. Frank shares their journey, from fundamentalist Christian Missouri to successful Seattle comedy career (coming out as non-binary, pansexual and polyamorous along the way) via accomplished jokes and endearingly meandering storytelling. Frank’s honesty in unmasking on stage is admirable, and their stream-of-consciousness highly podcastable. However, whilst the unscripted “memory segments” of the show can be commended for their authenticity – they’re unpredictable in length. They overrun, leading to a chaotic finale: Frank rushes into a previously-unseen Pastor character – who belongs to another show entirely. Currently an enjoyable but undercooked experiment, ‘Monkey Sermon’ could be wonderful with more focus, and further development of its promising multimedia elements.

Hill Street Theatre, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Bizz Holmes]