Inside number nine on a west London street live Peter (Reece Shearsmith) and Debbie (Amanda Abbington), a timorous couple who are “dying of manners”. They can’t communicate with their teenage children Alex (Gabriel Howell) and Rosie (Maddie Holliday), can’t stand their droning neighbour (Michael Simkins) and can’t believe they have agreed to host a houseguest – or, as Alex describes her, an “unscheduled obstacle”.
This is Elsa (Frances Barber), a brash American who was amusing company when they met on a cruise, but whose arrival prompts Peter to yearn for a real-world equivalent of Facebook’s “unfriend” button. Hence the title of this debut play from that TV Midas, Steven Moffat, directed by his Sherlock/Dracula cohort Mark Gatiss, and worthy (high praise, this) of a place in Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s macabre comedy series Inside No 9. For Elsa isn’t just a burden. She may also be a murderer, if the internet rumours are to be believed. Still, that’s no reason to kick her out, is it?
