Reece Shearsmith in Chichester: “It is just hilarious.”

The last time Reece Shearsmith was on the stage he was playing Putin in Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison at Old Vic, the tale of the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
Reece Shearsmith - Photo by Manuel HarlanReece Shearsmith - Photo by Manuel Harlan
Reece Shearsmith - Photo by Manuel Harlan

But now for something completely different…

His first stage role post-pandemic is The Unfriend, a new play by Steven Moffat and directed by Mark Gatiss in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre, running from May 21-July 9. The piece was originally planned for the 2020 season that never was; Reece is delighted that it is now happening.

“We were so looking forward to it. We had had the poster done and we'd all come together and then we were plunged into the Covid pandemic and the existential crisis the theatre was then drawn into. It was like will we ever be able to do this thing again? You just couldn't imagine it happening. I was alright in a way because we were filming Inside Number Nine series six... but then we had to stop that, but Steve and I were able to continue writing new material. We didn't write actually together for the first time which was really strange but at least we were able to do it.”

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And now at last comes The Unfriend – a play based on something that really did happen to friends of Steven’s.

After twenty years of marriage, Peter and Debbie are enjoying a cruise as a break from their annoying teenagers. Peter can’t resist exchanging views on Donald Trump with an American fellow passenger. There’s something slightly unsettling about the eagerly friendly Elsa Jean Krakowski – but there’s no point in rocking the boat when you’re about to get off it. Back home, an email arrives from Elsa, followed by Elsa herself. And when Debbie googles their house guest and turns up some hair-raising evidence, their good nature is challenged as never before…

“It's such a great and funny new play. I do think Steven is one of our great writers. He is so good at dialogue and even better at plot. His play is beautifully crafted. He was given this story by some friends of his and he just wanted to start writing. It could easily have been a TV drama but he wrote it as a play. Mark was around at the time because they were filming Dracula and then Mark was commandeered to direct the piece and it is really funny. It is agonisingly British. The play is about the British not ever wanting to appear impolite. The turning of the screws and the awful situations that they are getting in, they just try desperately to remain polite. It is wonderfully funny. It is like Basil Fawlty. I just love it and my character is exactly like me. He is furious about the world but will never say boo to a goose. It is like when you go out for a meal and the meal is cold and you don't say hey this food is cold. So many people just don't want to cause a fuss, but for this couple it is just cranked up and cranked up. There have been a few rewrites to make things more pertinent to now but really very little. and it is just hilarious.”