The Unfriend  
Criterion Theatre, London  

A FIRST theatrical collaboration between writer Steven Moffat and director Mark Gatiss, The Unfriend has transferred to the West End after a successful run at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and it’s easy to see why it’s been given its chance on a bigger stage.  
 
A first-rate comedy with strong elements of farce, it’s predicated on the amusingly stressful contortions of a middle-aged English couple, Peter and Debbie, who end up playing unwilling hosts to a peppy and alarmingly frank American widow, Elsa, who has managed to invite herself to their comfortable suburban home for a holiday in Britain.   
 
Soon aware that their unwanted visitor is (according to internet rumours) a murderer, they try to overcome their inherent politeness to pluck up the courage to kick her out.   
 
Yet they can never quite manoeuvre themselves into a position to do so, and Elsa is seemingly so impervious to suggestion that there’s no prospect she’ll ever get the hint and disappear.   
 
What’s more, Peter and Debbie’s two grumpy teenaged children, Alex and Rosie, previously at odds both with themselves and their parents, quickly take a liking to Elsa as, Mary Poppins-like, she charms them into viewing their family circumstances more positively.  
 
Along the way there’s plenty of opportunity to explore light-heartedly two cultures divided by a common language — to pit British reserve against American brashness, understatement against hyperbole – and with subtle nods to the recent machinations of Harry and Meghan, to contrast the buttoned-up British policy of leaving things unsaid with the touchy-feely American preference for an opening-up of hearts.   
 
Of course a lot of this is caricatured, but it’s funny nonetheless – and in fact there are some subtle departures from the stereotypes. Despite their obsession with good manners, for instance, Peter and Debbie are relentlessly and quite unconsciously rude to their boring neighbour (played with great skill by Michael Simkins), while Elsa, though insensitive on the surface, shows him far more consideration than they do.  
 
Elsa, too, is not above a bit of dissembling, and in her own way is just as guilty as her hosts of the British habit of saying one thing while meaning another.  
 
The best scenes arrive when Peter and Debbie build themselves up to a crescendo of self-inflicted confusion, trying desperately to avoid embarrassment. Yet there’s also genuine tension as the laughter flows, for they are so overwhelmed by their inability to break out of their behavioural straitjackets that it’s impossible not to clench your fists in sympathy. “We’re dying of manners” shouts Debbie at one point.  
 
That the audience is so invested in such discomfort is down to outstanding performances from Reece Shearsmith as Peter and Amanda Abbington as Debbie, their magnificently taut interactions honed to a high pitch on the Chichester stage. Frances Barber as Elsa is, if anything, even better, sailing through the emotional chaos that surrounds her with serene imperviousness, as well as a slightly malevolent assuredness.  
 
For Moffat and Gatiss, who have previously worked together so profitably on two TV series, Sherlock and Dracula, this is proof that their partnership can thrive outside of the small screen, and hopefully will be the first of many further theatrical joint efforts.  

Runs until April 16 2023. Box office:  033 33 202 895, criterion-theatre.co.uk