Caxton Theatre

While on holiday, Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa; a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. She's less than woke but kind of wonderful. They agree to stay in touch - because no one ever really does, do they?

When Elsa invites herself to stay a few months later, they decide to look her up online. Too late, they learn the truth about Elsa Jean Krakowski. Deadly danger has just boarded a flight to London! but how do you protect all that you love from moral peril without seeming, well, a bit impolite? Because guess who's coming...to murder!

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 2022, before transferring to London's West End - first to the Criterion Theatre, then to Wyndham's - 2023.

Steven Moffat is an award-winning writer whose internationally successful television shows include Doctor Who, Sherlock and Dracula - the latter two co-written with actor and writer Mark Gattiss, who made his directorial debut with The Unfriend.

Cast

Peter - Aged 40 - 55 - One half of a nice, civil and very English married couple. Peter is a Guardian reader. Quick fire quips. Dithering negativity and indecisive. Exaggerating the excruciating embarrassment of a man caught out by trying too hard not to be caught out.

Debbie - Aged 40 -55 - The other half of a nice, civil and very English married couple. She has the serious task of keeping the whole thing grounded. Protective of her children and trying to keep her husband from making a fool of himself. Practical, philosophical but anxious. The self-styled "up-tight" member of the family.

Elsa - Aged 50+ - A gift of a role. Playing it as big as it deserves. Hideously American in her over-friendliness and velour tracksuits. Grotesque as she is glamourous. Acerbic charm and equally manipulative. An enigma. Brash, larger than life and equally benevolent. Must be able to deliver a convincing American accent.

Alex - late teens - Lazy, lairy, video-game obsessed so of Debbie and Peter.

Rose - late teens - Typically awkward adolescent daughter of Debbie and Peter. Very clever, bookish and stroppy.

The Neighbour - 50+ - The man is so boring no one even bothers to find out his name. Typical curtain twitcher, neighbourhood watch kind of person. Effortlessly suburban tedium. A neighbour who is obsessed with the dull practicalities of sharing a border.

PC Junkin - 25+ - Scene stealing role. Police officer sent to enquire about an unexpected death but becomes quite besotted with Elsa. Dead pan humour - and a touch of slapstick with a toilet brush!