Sputnik Sweetheart at Arcola Theatre

Haruki Murakami’s much loved 1999 novel Sputnik Sweetheart has been adapted for the stage for the first time in history, by none other than Bryony Lavery (The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage, Frozen).

Melly Still (The Lovely Bones, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) steers this coming-of-age play from cosy coffee shops in Tokyo all the way to salty beaches in Greece, as we follow one young man on his mission to find his missing best friend, Sumire. But Sumire is not a damsel in distress. She is bold, she is creative, passionate and headstrong. She’s curiously obsessed with modelling herself in the image of Jack Kerouac, and more than anything, she’s desperately head-over-heels in love with a much older woman.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a tale about pining, not just for others but for the person you wish you were. It’s unrequited love in it’s most beautiful, perplexing form.