Neighbourhood Watch

Miriam Margolyes steps on stage in Lally Katz’s Neighbourhood Watch and at once we feel she isn’t just playing elderly former refugee, Ana, but in fact is this funny, endearing, manipulative and emotionally damaged woman. The audience becomes immersed in the State Theatre Company’s production of Katz’s whimsical, moving play and it delivers in spades.

Neighbourhood Watch is the story of Hungarian-Australian widow, Ana, and her tentative friendship with Catherine, an out of work actor who is Ana’s young neighbor on Mary Street. Mary Street’s residents tend to have nothing much to do with their neighbours; life just goes on as usual, the householders living their daily lives while dealing with personal issues or memories. Ana keeps busy rejecting coffee offers from one, criticizing some, and threatening others with the wrath of her large dog. When Ana and Catherine finally take tentative steps into friendship, the past comes flooding in and life lessons are learned on both sides.

Miriam Margoyles’ comic timing is perfect. She needs only to lift an eyebrow, purse her lips or punch out a pithy aside to have the audience in stitches. When in various situations Ana says, ‘don’t push’, as an ongoing means of instructing Catherine not to get ahead of herself, it adds another delicious touch to the superb performance. Equally, in Ana’s sad moments and in the character’s reflections on her Hungarian childhood and other past traumas, Margoyles is heartbreakingly poignant.

Recent NIDA graduate Eleanor Stankiewicz is excellent as Catherine, even though the episodic nature of the play and deliberate dearth of back-story prevents full development of the deep emotions her character must surely be experiencing in moving on from her own past. Stankiewicz is an absolute natural, as controlled and flawless in her style as if she were a professional of some years standing. She must surely have a magnificent future ahead.

The remaining cast is very good and kept extremely busy. Not only do most have one key character, they perform at least one other role, anything from a policeman to a passing stranger or even someone from the past. They also help in the flawless set changes, with pace never lapsing.

James Smith’s prime character is Catherine’s diabetic house-mate and dedicated computer game player, Ken. This is Smith’s first professional role and his performance is terrific. Nic English gives an equally fine performance as Martin. Eugenia Fragos is wonderful in her multiple roles, but particularly as Milova, the coffee-offering elderly Serbian neighbor. Although at times I found Carmel Johnson difficult to hear, she is strong in her role as Christina and movingly real when Christina reveals a health issue to Ana. Ben Roberts is very competent in his position as Supernumerary.

This is a memory play and the story evolves in such a way that scenes move from the present to the past and back again, creating a sometimes dreamlike feel. The action moves fluidly and uses every part of the stage. Under Julian Meyrick’s skilful direction the audience immediately recognises the moments in which time changes but is never confused by these transitions.

The set is wonderful in its simplicity and its compact efficiency. Houses consist of fabric stretched on frames, creating an abstract streetscape. They move, or open and close, to produce newly-shaped environments such as a place in the past or even Ana’s living room.

Lighting and sound design are superb and contribute much to this already absorbing play. When the lights finally go down on Mary Street the audience is left with an overwhelming awareness that the past must always be faced in order to make a future and that if one meets others halfway no one is truly alone.

Miriam Margoyles and the rest of the Neighbourhood Watch cast clearly enjoyed the audience’s final ovation on opening night. It resulted in several curtain calls. I bet, if given the chance to intervene, Ana would have told us in her own inimitable way not to push it.

Lesley Reed

READ THE FIRST PAGES AND BUY THE PLAY HERE AT STAGE WHISPERS BOOKS.

Images: Miriam Margolyes; Eleanor Stankiewicz and James Smith; Carmel Johnson, Ben Roberts, Eugenia Fragos, James Smith, Eleanor Stankiewicz, Nic English and Miriam Margolyes, & Eugenia Fragos, Miriam Margolyes and Eleanor Stankiewicz. Photographer: Shane Reid.