THE UNFRIEND

Comedic genius Helen Thomson (Colin from Accounts, The Importance of Being Earnest) is back on board at Sydney Theatre Company to challenge everything you thought you knew about good manners. 

Directed by the legendary Simon Phillips (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert), The Unfriend is the stage debut of Steven Moffat, the writer behind mega hits Doctor Who, Sherlock and Douglas is Cancelled. 

On a cruise ship, Peter (Tim Walter) and Debbie (Alex Lee) befriend Elsa (Thomson), a sassy and less than sensitive American widow who demands they stay in touch. When Elsa invites herself to stay a few months later, they look her up online and learn that she’s been putting more than mushrooms into the odd casserole, with poisonous results. Now, the couple must race to protect their family whilst avoiding the greatest faux pas of all: being, well, a bit impolite? Because guess who's coming to... murder!

This deliciously dark comedy – also starring Ty Arnott, Brooklyn Davies, Huw Higginson and Ben Wood – takes a hilarious bite out of middle-class England's obsession with being “nice”, no matter the cost. Don your napkin for “an uproarious comedy of English embarrassment...a relentlessly snowballing orgy of discomfiture...a delight” (London Evening Standard).