The Unfriend by Steven Moffat

April 10 - 12 2025

Smarden Charter Hall

Peter and Debbie are enjoying a cruise – a celebration of twenty years of marriage, and a break from their annoying teenagers. They befriend fellow passenger, Elsa Jean Krakowski, an eccentric American with a fondness for Donald Trump. There’s something slightly unsettling in her overeager friendliness… but there’s no point rocking the boat if you’re about to get off it.

Back home, in the comfort of suburbia, Elsa suddenly turns up on Peter and Debbie’s doorstep, unexpectedly. And when they look up their house guest online, unearthing some hair-raising evidence, their good nature is challenged as never before. What kind of danger have they allowed to take up residence in their guest room? And can they bring themselves to say anything about it? Sometimes, the truth is just too impolite.

Steven Moffat’s play The Unfriend takes a hilarious and satirical look at middle-class England’s disastrous instinct always to appear nice. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in May 2022, directed by Mark Gatiss.

Message from the Director

I first saw Steven Moffat’s hilarious comedy, ‘The Unfriend’, at the Criterion Theatre in London almost exactly two years ago, with the original cast from the Minerva Theatre, Chichester. It was a double debut – for Steven Moffat as a stage dramatist and for Mark Gatiss as a director – and a triumph for them both, as well as a superb cast including Amanda Abbington, Frances Barber and Reece Shearsmith. I laughed so much when I saw the show that it immediately went onto my ‘wish list’ for future TODS productions. As it turns out, we are one of the first amateur societies to be awarded the performing rights – an honour which we are delighted to have been given and which we have been determined to fully justify.

We have had a huge amount of fun in rehearsals exploring the various different types of humour embedded in the play, both verbal and physical. The juxtaposition of polite British reservation and outlandish American manipulation are just the starting point of the comedy in this play. Add in a passive aggressive neighbour, hormonal children and the threat of murder, not to mention a policeman with a dodgy tummy, you have all the ingredients you need for a humorous rollercoaster that can, perhaps, allow us to forget for just a few hours the very unfunny but increasingly crazy world in which we find ourselves.

I have been very lucky to work with a fantastic cast and crew for ‘The Unfriend’ which includes both long-standing and new members, all of whom have thrown themselves enthusiastically into this production. A special mention to Marion and Fiona who work tirelessly behind the scenes for TODS as both committee members and producers and without whom this production would not have been possible.
Enjoy the show!

Patrick Harrison