Past productions

THE UNFRIEND

25 September – 4 October 2025

by Steven Moffat

While on holiday, Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa: a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. She’s less than woke but kind of wonderful. They agree to stay in touch – because no one ever really does, do they?

When Elsa invites herself to stay a few months later, they decide to look her up online. Too late, they learn the truth about Elsa Jean Krakowski. Deadly danger has just boarded a flight to London! But how do you protect all that you love from mortal peril without seeming, well, a bit impolite? Because guess who’s coming… to murder!

Steven Moffat’s play The Unfriend takes a hilarious and satirical look at middle-class England’s disastrous instinct always to appear nice. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2022, starring Reece Shearsmith, Frances Barber and Amanda Abbington, before transferring to London’s West End – first to the Criterion Theatre, then to Wyndham’s – in 2023.

Steven Moffat is an award-winning writer whose internationally successful television shows include Doctor Who, Sherlock and Dracula – the latter two co-written with actor and writer Mark Gatiss, who made his stage directorial debut with The Unfriend.

Cast

Photography by Chris Fenton

Review | October 2025 | Theo Spring

The Unfriend recently had a most successful run in the West End with a stellar cast and there was a reflected benefit for the Miller Theatre, resulting in all the performances needing a proud ‘Sold Out’ notice being pasted on the poster outside the theatre. I doubt that anyone who contributed to that sell out would have been disappointed with their purchase of a seat, as it delivered a joyous night out and had the audience laughing right from the start.

A possible problem might have been that the play has two very different settings, but this did not deter set designer Keith Orton whose luxury liner for the opening scenes was carefully designed to be both elegant and easily dismantled. The sea backdrop, ship’s rail and door with a circular port hole window all disappeared like magic when being transformed into rooms in a small house by a backstage crew who must be commended for the chorography of the reset, which was beautifully done.

The essence of the plot concerns a couple (Peter and Debbie) who meet a lone widow (Elsa from Denver) on board the cruise liner and become transient holiday friends. Elsa’s invitation to the couple to look her up if they are ever in Denver is turned on its head when it is she, in fact, who comes to England and virtually invites herself to stay with them. As is often the way of things, they are too polite to say ‘no’ and she is invited to stay for a week. Turning up a couple of days early is only the beginning of things starting to go wrong as their research on Mr Google reveals her to have, to say the least, a possible criminal past, with multiple husbands and friends dying mysteriously.

The comic events and situations dreamed up by author Steven Moffat are so well delivered by the cast, with twists and turns running throughout the show.

Anne Gregory created a very believable, charming, wouldn’t hurt a fly Elsa, complete with sustained Dever accent – a seemingly harmless widow who chatted on cheerfully about her husbands who had died and friends who followed suit. A pivotal role in which she triumphed, making it hard to believe the possibility that she was a murderer. For the comedy to work, Peter and Debbie had to alternate between their ingrained polite exterior and a growing panic that they were housing a felon. Robin Clark, ever the master of comic timing, shaped the role of Peter using a mixture of the script, his body language and an ability to go from calm to panic in seconds. He excelled in his scene when trying to discuss the ‘delivery’ resulting from the policeman’s need for the loo – egged on by his wife.

To Debbie fell the initial stirrings of misgivings about their guest and Rachel Dresner made her busy, swinging from being excruciatingly polite to panicky. To her fell the dealings with her two teenaged children, both of whom were, initially, belligerent and sullen. Then along came Elsa and they miraculously changed. Son Alex (Harry Dresner and real-life son of Rachel) had a huge attack of teenage doldrums and may well have ended the run with a sore throat since he had to shout so loudly for his mum, so many times. A touch of comedy here too – particularly when avoiding answering the land line phone at any cost. Daughter Rosie was played by Alex Absalom-Sanchez who seems to pop up in so many productions these days. A antagonistic young lady, hating her brother of course, and deeming everything ‘unfair’, she transformed under Elsa’s affection, turning into a charmer who bought flowers into the house to cheer the place up. Another realistic and excellent performance.

Popping in and out of the house, always, it seemed, uninvited was the un-named neighbour who had a very much one-sided discussion with Peter about a problem with their shared garden wall. Russ Gregory in the role, spent quite a bit of his time on stage in silence, until (spoiler alert) he met the ultimate silence in the final moments of the play. An enigmatic delivery here, and no-one could have guessed his ultimate fate.

The final member of the cast, who had to wait quite some time to make his appearance, was the aforementioned policeman, PC Junkin, with Jonny Bailey having to make his initial appearance and actions without saying a word, bringing more comedy to a play which bubbled over with it.

The set for the house was well laid out, with a living room and very well-equipped kitchen and stairs up to the unseen bedrooms. The approach to the front door was clearly seen through the kitchen window, all relevant to the plot, and there was a back door out to the garden. Add to this the door to the downstairs loo to which PC Junkin urgently gravitated, and the layout was complete. The décor was carefully chosen with bold wallpaper being offset by plain painted walls. The sighting of the stairwell was all-important as it gave a large flat wall area upon which a variety of videos and photographs were shown. The Videography was all completed by Robin Clark and one, in particular, was very clever in as much as it was a talking head, but without the sound; the lines being delivered on stage, to match.

The incidental music was upbeat, particularly the chirpy and fun version of The Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Costumes were of today’s era and everyone looked comfortable in their outfits – mostly trousers and jumpers, with a rather splendid top for Elsa when she finally left the house.

The whole play, under the expert and informed direction of Phil Fry, was high in both comedy delivered and mystery evolving and gets full marks for entertainment of the highest calibre.