Scamoramland was an SF Chronicle Weekend Pick and Editors’ Choice for Theatre Bay Area Magazine

Performers Under Stress (PUS) continues their Seventh Season in San Francisco with Scamoramaland the play that asks the question: Can an ambitious young scammer find happiness and a literary career on the Internet? This new play by Bay Area playwright and filmmaker Eve Edelson explores a topic with which anyone in the Internet industry or with email will be familiar: Nigerian email scams!


Freddy, a young Internet scammer with dreams of an artistic career, is striking out in the world of email fraud. Most of his potential victims turn out to be pranksters. Under pressure from his thuggish boss to score, Freddy takes increasing risks and must finally decide what kind of man he will be. Meanwhile, as they concoct ever more humiliating surprises for Freddy, his tormenters begin to feel a bond with each other -- but if they met in the flesh, could they stand each other? or can they only be friends in Scamoramaland?


Playwright Eve Edelson created this play based on her non-fiction book of the same name. Here's what she has to say about Scamoramaland:


The age-old crime of advance fee fraud destroys lives and rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Its Nigerian practitioners are currently the most notorious – many of them rich - most small-time dreamers. Scamoramaland tries to put a human face on them and the ‘scambaiters’ who toy with them. Scambaiting is psychological warfare, political satire, and a literary scene. I’m excited about the talented cast bringing these characters to life – Freddy, the apprentice scammer with dreams of a literary career; and his tormenters, who think they know each other just because they’re ‘friends’ on the internet.


Neil Higgins (SF Olympians, SF Theater Pub) helms this production. Cast includes Shaye Angelo Acevedo, Scott Baker, Melissa Clason, Yeelen Cohen, Geoffrey Colton, Valerie Fachman, Duane Lawrence, and James Udom.Sylvia Kratins joins as Producer.