WHEN Stephen Moffatt’s play The Unfriend opened at Chichester’s Minerva Studio in 2019, Joe Biden was the US President and Trump was a ghastly memory, subject of conversations on cruise liners between Peter and Debbie, British parents of teenage children, and Elsa, a charismatic Coloradan with a rather peculiar past.
Mark Gatiss made his stage directorial debut with this play, and now, with Trump 2 imposing his spoiled-five-year-old outbursts on a terrified world, the play has been released for amateur production, and first in our region to take up the challenge is Shaftesbury Arts Centre Drama Group under director Bryan Farrell.
As someone who has made long-term friendships with people met on holiday – one of them alarmingly like Elsa – this story has great appeal and resonance. Happily Kay is not a serial killer, but in truth, after 30 minutes chat over breakfast on a mountain overlooking Innsbruck where we met, it was a chance to take. Her then partner thought WE were moving in on her antiques when we visited her Virginia home, and warned her to look out for U-Haul vans!
The Unfriend is really a story of how polite and reticent we Brits can be. Just before Elsa was due to arrive, Peter and Debbie Googled her, and found a story of a less-than-plausible number of dead relatives in her past, along with claims of her murderous but unprosecuted journey through life. But once she came into their home, they just couldn’t find a way to ask her to leave – particularly when she seemed to have a magical key to unlock the best from the housebound, lazy, monosyllabic and demanding Alex and the suspicious, grumpy and selfish Rosie.
All the time, a nameless and uber-boring neighbour wanted to talk about a wall and soil in their gardens, and Peter just couldn’t get his head round it.
The Shaftesbury production, played on a clever set complete with video projections, is fortunate in a cast of six fine comic actors (and Mr Wopat’s gastrically-challenged policeman). Albie Atherton and Isobelle Heard are scarily realistic as Alex and Rosie, with Nicky Porter holding the fort, desperately trying to be calm and reasonable as Debbie and Chris Fosten as the deeply disorganised and often infuriating Peter. Jon Corry is the dull and persistent neighbour from hell. Nicole Forbes-Marshell is a magnetic, histrionic, warm-hearted, persuasive and perfidious Elsa – totally believable as a shape-shifting charmer.
It’s a hilarious show, and one that is bringing a new audience to the Arts Centre, as well as delighting the traditional supporters. It’s on until Saturday, so see it if you can.
GP-W