REVIEW | The Unfriend, Wyndham’s Theatre
Lee Mack and Sarah Alexander in The Unfriend - photo by Manuel HarlanWritten by Franco Milazzo for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Headed by new faces Lee Mack and Sarah Alexander, a refreshed cast for The Unfriend has now been unwrapped and let loose on this comedy but it is still one of the biggest headscratchers in the West End.
The pairing of writer Steven Moffatt and director Mark Gatiss is an enticing one considering their individual and combined work together, especially Moffatt’s seminal comedy Coupling, Gatiss’ sharply observed dark skits for The League Of Gentlemen and their modern updates of Sherlock and Dracula. Quite how they combined to create what is essentially a prosaic twist based on the standard Seventies sitcom format is far from elementary.
Married couple Peter and Debbie (Mack and Alexander) meet loud-mouthed MAGA-loving widow Elsa (a returning Frances Barber) on a cruise. Sometime after they get back to the UK, the pair find out that their American friend is paying a visit. The snag? Just before she arrives, Debbie finds out via Google that Elsa has been accused of poisoning her close family.
As much as anything, this is a comedy of manners with cliched observations of how the English are loath to cause offence and would rather self-deprecate and straight out lie rather than speak awkward truths. It’s a quaint form of national introspection that died out around the end of the last century when social navelgazing died off as a dramatic obsession. Just why Moffat and Gatiss are returning to plough this particular furrow with occasional neologisms (the title comes from Peter’s futile attempt to “unfriend” Elsa on Facebook) is unknown.
It is not like the laughs aren’t there. Even with her dodgy accent (sounding far more New York than Elsa’s supposed Colorado), Barber gives a tour de force performance as the brash murderer who upturns the household. Like Nick Nolte’s Jerry Baskin in the underrated Down and Out In Beverley Hills, we see Elsa tackle the attitudes of the children Rosie (once again portrayed by Maddie Holliday) and Alex (played now by Jem Matthews); how Elsa turns their frowns upside down is barely credible but her outbursts and charming ways are a joy to behold. In his standout performance as the neighbour so dull that no-one knows his name, Nick Sampson shows simply phenomenal timing and presence.
The leading pair are able, if not outstanding. As a comedian and comic actor, Mack makes for a fine comedian. He doesn’t seem comfortable in a straight man role, seeming a little lost when Barber or Sampson hold forth. Alexander isn’t given much to work with as Debbie only really has two modes: storming around in a huff or in a panic or still and stern; neither stretch this actor’s abilities.
While Moffatt coasts along here as a writer, Gatiss hardly fares better. There’s a deep irony that, next door at The Motive And The Cue, the latter is delivering a real masterclass playing a legendary actor-turned-director yet, as a real one for this play, Gatiss is content to lean back and allow Moffatt’s script to largely dictate the pacing and acting. A firmer hand may have scrubbed the scene where Mack and a policeman discuss the cop’s stools and perhaps given Alexander more agency rather than relying on Mack’s meagre acting skills to deliver some of the gags. Even with its bevy of new faces, The Unfriend won’t be missed when it leaves the West End.
At Wyndham’s Theatre until 9 March 2024
☆ ☆ ☆
