Last Thursday night Stuart and I went to see Steven Moffat's dark new comedy The Unfriend at the Criterion Theatre.
On the face of it, it's a simply idea. You meet someone on holiday who you sort of get on with when perhaps your normal decision making is out of kilter. You socially awkwardly say goodbye and you say must stay in touch. And then that person actually shows up on your doorstep. And they might be a murderer.
Add to this; an outstanding cast, a razor sharp script, and some neat directorial flourishes - and you have a riotous hit on your hands.
Yes, it's a comedy of manners. Yes, it's very West End. But it's very, very funny too.
Amanda Abbington is note-perfect as Debbie. Reece Shearsmith brilliant as her husband Peter. Frances Barber plays the murderous cuckoo-who-won't-leave Elsa with glee.
Whatsmore, when Elsa befriends Peter and Debbie's stroppy teenage son and daughter (brilliantly played by Gabriel Howell and Maddie Holliday) and further inveigles herself into their London home, it is more than apt that Debbie descibes her as, 'Murder Poppins.'
I won't give the game away but in the second act we have a policeman, a downstairs toilet, and enough farce to fill a firkin.
Catch it while you can. Our sides were aching.
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