The Unfriend a sell out at The Talisman
- Ashley Hayward
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Unfriend by Steven Moffat, at the Talisman Theatre and Arts Centre, from Monday 9 February - Saturday 14 February 2026. Directed by Vanessa Comer, Assistant to Director Connor Bailey.
Review by Ashley Hayward.
This play has been accurately described as a cross between a farce and a sitcom and it was certainly given a massive thumbs up by the first night audience as they collectively rose to give it a well-deserved and enthusiastic ovation.
Steven Moffat’s brilliant script exposes the ways in which the British middle class can find it very difficult to be impolite for fear of causing offence whilst some of our friends across the Atlantic have no difficulty whatsoever in saying things exactly as they see them.
The beginning of the play is set onboard a cruise liner, and we meet a suburbanite couple Peter and Debbie as they try to enjoy their four-week holiday. Mark Plastow is excellent as the Guardian reading, often groaning Peter with Esther Riggs shining as the far more organised Debbie. Despite their constant bickering they enjoy a healthy relationship which is often enhanced with a glass of red wine.
Whilst on the ocean they are befriended by an extremely loud, brash and self-confident American tourist named Elsa. She certainly supports Donald Trump in his efforts to ‘Make America Great Again’ and expresses opinions of which the couple disapprove but are far too polite to challenge.
Julie-Ann Randell gives a really powerful performance as the flamboyant, uninhibited and totally tactless Elsa and as the cruise comes to an end, she suggests that they should keep in touch. Even though the couple had no wish to ever see her again, Elsa neatly manages to obtain their email address and becomes a Facebook friend. After a string of emails Elsa suddenly appears on their doorstep. This was very much to their horror as research on Google had revealed she may not be what she seems and has a dark past.
There are some hilariously moments after Elsa arrives with some wonderful lines all delivered with impeccable timing.
Adam Turner and Alais McCluskey give very believable performances as the couple’s stroppy teenage offsprings, Alex and Rosie, who both develop a surprisingly positive relationship with their American visitor. We also get to meet their dreadfully dull and boring neighbour nicely played by Phil Reynolds who is a frequent visitor and constantly wanting to discuss a collapsing garden wall as well as PC Junkin (Mark Oram) who is suffering a tummy problem and plays out a toilet scene in the best tradition of a British farce.
Unfriend is at the same time reassuringly familiar and utterly fresh and original. It has all the elements of traditional British domestic comedy: misunderstanding, social embarrassment, suburban angst; bumbling parents, sassy kids, the terrible neighbour who just keeps cropping up; the tight plotting and the sharp dialogue. There are echoes of My Family, Outnumbered, Fawlty Towers and of course the ever-opening doors of the old Whitehall Farces. Yet here new elements have transformed the familiar. One obvious difference is that the action is set in today’s world of info tech, where the characters think they can control events via their smartphones.
However, the biggest difference is that staple of British comedy, class anxiety. In this case the great social irritant is a culture clash between uptight Brits and a totally uninhibited American who might be a mass murderer! Was a mass murderer ever funny? Well, The Unfriend makes it so. And the villain of the piece also turns out to be a bit of a Mary Poppins bringing back warmth and refreshment to a dysfunctional family.
I was going to finish by saying that I wholeheartedly recommend that you go and see this play but I’m afraid it’s already completely sold out!
Discover more from The Talisman: https://talismantheatre.co.uk/
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