The Unfriend

Were dying of manners. Were under siege from personal embarrassment. This is not sane. This is not rational. That woman is a monster!

While on holiday, Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa: a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. Shes 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 mortal peril without seeming, well, a bit impolite? Because guess whos coming... to murder!

Steven Moffats play The Unfriend takes a hilarious and satirical look at middle-class Englands disastrous instinct always to appear nice. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2022, before transferring to Londons West End – first to the Criterion Theatre, then to Wyndhams – in 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 Gatiss, who made his stage directorial debut with The Unfriend.