Review: The Unfriend at Cast Doncaster

“… laugh-out-loud farce…reaches for the stars and grabs them with both hands…”

The Unfriend by Steven Moffat, Cast Doncaster

By Sean Sable

I’ll be the first to say that I enjoy comedies that know exactly what they are. Growing up with TV-shaped eyes on the likes of Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Are You Being Served?, I developed a genuine fondness for the British farce tradition. I never get tired of singularly stupid premises executed with utter conviction and disasters that evaporate if someone just says what they bloody mean. The clockwork of a character walking in (or out) of a scene at just the right moment never fails to find my funny bone. The conceit of the pushy interloper who barges into a home and refuses to leave is one of the oldest jokes in that playbook and, whilst well-worn, still has plenty of mileage left in it. The Unfriend is a play that knows what it is: a comedy of manners in the truest British farcical style, as cosy as an old jumper.

The Rep (Doncaster Amateur Players), currently celebrating their 90th year, have chosen their anniversary production wisely. Steven Moffat, whose television credits include Doctor Who and Sherlock, wrote The Unfriend as his stage debut, with Sherlock collaborator Mark Gatiss directing. It premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2022 before transferring twice to the West End. Last night’s production, directed by Chris Green, was brought to life by a company that is truly amateur in name only.

The story begins in a known wellspring of comic hijinks: the deck of a cruise ship. Peter and Debbie, a painfully middle-class couple, are forced to make nice with Elsa Jean Krakowski, their brash American deck-chair neighbour. Anyone who has ever graced a ship’s lido deck or taken an all-inclusive holiday has met their very own version of Elsa: warm, relentlessly pushy, with strong opinions and no meaningful concept of personal boundaries. And in a situation we all know a little too well, they part with the usual promises nobody intends to keep. But that’s where the fun begins. Elsa, a self-proclaimed “people positive” woman, doesn’t take no for an answer. After she invites herself to the couple’s London home, they decide to do a little internet snooping and discover that wherever Elsa Jean Krakowski goes, the dead bodies pile up. When Peter and Debbie are too polite to say no, Elsa Jean barges her way into their family, for worse—and for better.

The entire cast delivered a stellar show, with much of the talent punching well above its weight. Vicky Tasker’s Elsa Jean is an absolute force to be reckoned with, and her American accent had that bigger-than-life quality that made her performance feel shudderingly real. She had a kind of forward momentum and malignant likeability that convinced me that a sensible couple simply couldn’t bring themselves to ask her to leave. I was, at points, mildly concerned she might follow me home.

Neil Sandland’s Peter had a very recognisable quality: a bit feckless and easily overwhelmed, he begins each day with annoyance. His exasperated delivery and excellent timing in the set pieces were consistently well-executed. Ryan Dunn’s Alex was one of my personal highlights of the evening. His physicality was something the parent of any teenager can appreciate: the hips-forward slouch, the hoodie and the slightly open-mouthed confusion were so accurate that it stopped feeling like a character and started feeling like my own son about 10 years ago.

Rick Woffenden’s Neighbour presented me with a delightful quandary: he was supposed to be the most boring man alive, yet I found him entirely endearing. The soft northern affability he brought to the role made him quite loveable, which undercut the written character somewhat. Yet I still can’t fault the performance because he was the spitting image of every elderly neighbour I have ever had, down to the obsessive monitoring of the neighbourhood recycling. (And for the record, I am on his side about that fence!)

Tony Greenan and Chris Green’s video design deserves a special nod. The production features clips from a fictional internet crime show, hosted by Berni Lees in that special combination of dead-voiced upspeak that every true crime lover knows. Every time the scene cut to a video, the audience was in stitches.

The sound design was perfectly modulated, with just the right amount of Foley to bring the scenes to life without sounding like an arcade explosion of bells and whistles. Dave Law and Andrew Leverton’s set was more than impressive considering the word “amateur” is associated with the production. Projecting the cruise ship deck onto the back wall and letting the house set sit in shadow, rather than attempt a physical scene change, was both elegant and practical. The house interior was of a quality I usually associate with better regional productions. Penny Rischmiller’s lighting found its success in near invisibility. The design contained several comedic lighting cues, and each was hit meticulously. Costume design from Gill Brown, Kath Woffenden and Kate McKeown was excellent throughout. Elsa’s velour tracksuit and gold trainers were iconic, and her character’s wardrobe was so spot-on, with its loud florals and chunky jewellery, that I can’t help but think they’ve known a few Elsas in their lives.

If I have any minor niggles to share, they are almost exclusively with the script. Sometimes the jokes (many of which land with thunder) undercut themselves with their strict adherence to the rule of three or their lack of emotional range. Occasionally the circling procrastination comedy lingers a beat too long, but that’s between Moffat and his editor.

The Unfriend is The Rep at their anniversary best: a laugh-out-loud farce with a creative team that reaches for the stars and grabs them with both hands. It’s a production that overstays its welcome in the best kind of way—just make sure you don’t give Elsa Jean your home address on your way out of the theatre.

The Unfriend plays at Cast Doncaster until Sunday 10 May. Tickets are available here.

Sean Sable is a Yorkshire-based freelance writer and editor specialising in Young Adult and Horror fiction, frequently at the same time. When she isn’t buried under a pile of books and manuscripts, she is looking for her keys and having extensive one-sided conversations, in Swedish, with her deaf cat. You can find her online at: www.seansable.co.uk