Simply entertaining.
The Unfriend, produced by Sydney Theatre Company, is a delightful display of theatrical fun. Replete with British humour, cultural clashes and escalating farce, it knows how to keep an audience laughing.
The Unfriend focuses on British couple Peter and Debbie Lindell (Tim Walter, Alex Lee), who befriend the zealous, energetic, and American Elsa Jean Krakowski (Helen Thomson) on a holiday cruise. When Krakowski announces that she is coming to stay with the Lindells in England, they reluctantly welcome her into their family home. Despite Elsa winning over the Lindell children (Ty Arnott, Brooklyn Davies) and becoming a popular figure in the local community, her increasingly strange behaviour raises suspicions from Peter and Debbie, who begin to wonder whether she is just eccentric or something more sinister.
Steven Moffat‘s script is hilarious. The Lindell’s British reserve, politeness and passive aggression repeatedly come up against Krakowski’s American directness and brashness, creating a stream of misunderstandings that escalate in their absurdity. It is quintessentially British humour, full of social discomfort, cringe and embarrassment.
Simon Phillips‘ direction understands such humour and attempts to play it up. Despite a slow opening, he recognises the script’s beats and ensures that the production eventually matches them, allowing the actors to land their jokes, emphasise the story’s ridiculousness, and keep the audience engaged. His inclusion of videos, such as a sitcom-esque title sequence projected on to the stage after the first scene, and pre-recorded videos of Thomson which are projected later on, are more mixed in their effectiveness, slickly created and designed (Morgan Moroney) but sometimes interrupting or jarring the live performances.
Such performances are strong. Walter, Lee, Arnott and Davies create a relatable family dynamic. Arnott, as Peter and Debbie’s moody son Alex, nails the role. His exasperated sighs and melodramatic reactions to doing the simplest household chores perfectly display a teenage boy. Davies, as the headstrong daughter Rosie, has a deft understanding of the character’s whip smart personality. Walter and Lee authentically capture the struggles of parenting kids like those, with audiences able to understand (if not directly relate to) what they are going through.
Separately, Walter and Lee play the couple’s descent into farce brilliantly. As Peter and Debbie become more suspicious of Krakowski, their actions to uncover the truth about her become increasingly bizarre, and the performers succeed in finding the humour in them. Walter is of particular note here: his awkward reactions, misplaced confidence and English politeness make for brilliant comedy. His acting in an extended scene involving a toilet pushes the play’s farce to its max, and is one of the funniest performances of the year.
Thomson leads the show well. She channels Elsa’s ability to intrude, annoy and dominate nicely, and creates good chemistry with the rest of the cast. Her costumes (Isabel Hudson, Scott Fisher) are exquisite – it’s clear that for Elsa, there is no such thing as too much leopard print. However, some of her jokes are repeated well beyond the point at which they have made their initial impact, occasionally making the comedy feel more laboured than it needs to be. Cameos from Ben Wood and Huw Higginson as a police officer and bothersome neighbour are laudable, and offer vital respite from Krakowski and the Lindells.
Ultimately, once The Unfriend hits its stride, the combination of family friction, cultural clash, farce and unapologetically British humour is good fun. And that’s really all that matters.
