Review | The Unfriend by CCADS at The Square Tower, Old Portsmouth: A merciless comedy of manners
Do you have difficulty saying ‘no’ to people?
Or have you ever made a new acquaintance before realising you don’t have much in common after all? If so, The Unfriend needs a trigger warning just for you…
In this delightfully dark and hilarious play, a British couple are enthusiastically befriended on a cruise by Elsa – a slightly unhinged, Trump-voting American widow. Peter and Debbie are too well-mannered to refuse Elsa their address – and later end up with an unwanted house guest.
The setting is sitcom, the action is farce and there’s more than a hint of murder in the air. The way the writing pokes fun – gently yet mercilessly – at British middle-class life is particularly on point; Peter simmers in a stew of low-level anger, while Debbie constantly seems uptight.
First performed in Chichester in 2022, I was intrigued to see how CCADS would deliver the play’s first outing in Portsmouth. The answer is brilliantly well.
The cast is universally strong, and when the person next to me referred to them as amateur actors, I had to remind myself that they really were. Every actor delivers their lines flawlessly – and their facial expressions too (what’s left unsaid is just as important in this play).
It feels a little unfair to pick favourites, but I will anyway. John-Paul McCrohon captures Peter’s angst with pitch-perfect precision, while young Christopher McCrohon is superb as mood-swinging teenager Alex. Jane Pegler is a force of energy as Elsa, and Tony Dart oozes passive-aggressiveness from every pore as the neighbour-from-hell. The atmospheric Square Tower setting is thoughtfully and immersively employed and lighting is on the mark.
Is there a deeper point to the play? Yes, I think so. Failing to confront the truth out of politeness or embarrassment has real consequences. And the longer you don’t challenge bad behaviour, the more normalised it becomes. It’s surely no accident that Trump’s name is invoked either, and it doesn’t take too much work to draw conclusions there.
But let’s not get too serious. The Unfriend is primarily a chaotic yet highly relatable comedy which will have you laughing and cringing at the characters and probably yourself too. It’s a wild and fun ride, and you should go see it.
Until Thursday.