Review of Reece Shearsmith and Amanda Abbington in Steven Moffat's comedy

How many farces are based on an English character’s social awkwardness and the misunderstandings that arise from their inability to be unambiguous, paralysed by the fear that being clear and direct might be a social faux pas?

The star-studded comedy of manners The Unfriend, newly arrived in the West End following a run in Chichester, takes that idea to a logical conclusion. What if a couple were just too polite to mention that their house guest may very well be a serial killer?

Reece Shearsmith and Amanda Abbington are the uptight Peter and Debbie, who get to know the brash American Elsa Jean Krakowski while on a cruise. Like everyone else, they find themselves drawn into her orbit by the inescapable gravity of her overpowering personality. But when she takes up the usually empty promise to keep in touch and turns up on their suburban London doorstep, it would have been a terrifying enough prospect – even before they had discovered her homicidal past.

In his first stage play, former Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat returns to his sitcom roots with a culture-clash comedy between this cripplingly obtuse middle-class couple and the straight-talking, upbeat, Trump-supporting Krakowski. But as she blows into their life, this larger-than-life presence proves, surprisingly, a force for good, turning their taciturn computer-game addicted teenage son Alex into a gregarious fitness freak and softens the bristly edges of his sister, Rosie. ‘Murder Poppins,’ Debbie calls her.

Gamely played by Gabriel Howell and Maddie Holliday, these youngsters are little more than two-dimensional sitcom archetypes, a charge that could stick against almost all the personalities in the play. But what Moffat misses in depth, he makes up for with a plethora of sharp lines, a couple of hilarious set pieces, and a deft ability to make all the pieces of the story’s jigsaw fit together snugly. To help him achieve this, he’s assembled an enviable cast, directed efficiently – but with surprisingly few flourishes – by Mark Gatiss, Shearsmith’s League Of Gentleman colleague and Moffat’s Sherlock collaborator.

As Krakowski, Francis Barber can sometimes be a bit much for the audience as well as her reluctant host, but keeps her character's excesses largely in check. She’s been gifted the most waspishly funny lines of the show, untethered by social niceties, and relishes the chance to deliver such zingers.

Shearsmith brings fine comedy timing and underplayed frustrations to the pessimistic Peter, squirming at the dilemma of wanting a homicidal maniac out of his house but not wanting to appear rude about it. Debbie’s a less interesting role, but Abbington makes it dynamic and engaging, with a light touch.

Coming in at under two hours, even with an interval, The Unfriend mostly unravels at a brisk pace. However, the first half gets bogged down in a sluggish scene in which Peter gets tied up in agonising knots after fibbing about his mother’s health to get rid of Krakowski, which, even by the standards of farce, stretches the credibility. In contrast, the pivotal comedy moment of the second half, a scatological scene about a visiting policeman. (Marcus Onilude) using the family’s toilet, is certainly funny enough to overcome the contrivance. 

Another clear highlight is Michael Simkins's tedious, dryly passive-aggressive neighbour so dull that Peter hasn’t managed to retain his name in ten years.

If you’re looking for allegories, Moffatt could be seen to be making some gently satirical points about how we so quickly become used to extreme situations as the new normal, whether that’s Covid or Trump. But The Unfriend makes no claims to be deep on any level, aiming instead to serve as a vehicle to deliver as many breezy and high-spirited one-liners as quickly as possible through archetypes that offer little complexity but instant recognition. It might be slightly old-fashioned, but on its own metric, it works.

• The Unfriend is at the Criterion Theatre, London, until April 16. Tickets.

Review date: 20 Jan 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett