Neighbourhood Watch

First performed in 2007, Lally Katz’s Neighbourhood Watch has cemented itself as one of the most important and popular Australian plays of this century. It’s moving, it’s heartfelt, and, thanks to the St. Jude’s Players, it’s very much alive and kicking.

The plot: suburban Adelaide, 2007. Ana (Julia Quick), an 80-year-old Hungarian refugee, collides (figuratively, not literally) with her neighbour Catherine (Ellia Schaeffer), a would-be Australian actor with more angst than auditions. Both are limping along under the weight of traumatic pasts, both have had their worlds knocked sideways, and both somehow find themselves in a friendship that manages to be improbable, funny, and deeply human

It reminded me of an old acting class warm-up called “Yes! Let’s!” - a game that insists you agree to everything, no matter how absurd. (“Let’s pretend we’re penguins!” “Yes! Let’s!”). Ana and Catherine’s journey is a slightly more tragic version of that, except instead of waddling, they’re navigating grief and mortality.

Katz’s play shares DNA with other Australian works about WWII European refugees trying to plant roots in our sunburnt soil, such as Janis Balodis’s Too Young for Ghosts, and the mini-series The Dunera Boys. It also embraces Tim Daly’s Kafka Dances, Michael Gow’s Europe, and Katz’s own A Golem Story. They’re all tales where Australian cheerfulness meets European tragedy, and both sides come away a little startled. Reconciliation and redemption are the endgame, but not before a few culture shocks.

The St. Jude’s production, helmed by Lesley Reed (with Mark Wickett assisting), tackles this tricky piece with confidence and care. The play demands quicksilver shifts between suburban kitchens and war-torn memories, and the staging pulls it off without once tripping over the furniture.

Julia Quick’s Ana is a masterclass in comedic timing and emotional depth - part sardonic battle-axe, part fragile survivor. Sarah Bradley’s original music adds an extra layer of melancholy beauty, particularly in Tanya Rose’s haunting Hungarian song. Gail Morrison’s Jovanka, Ana’s endlessly patient Serbian neighbour, manages to make repeated rejection look almost like an art form. When Ana finally accepts Jovanka’s offer of coffee, it’s a moment so quietly moving you’ll want to hug the nearest Eastern European.

In short: the St. Jude’s Players have given Neighbourhood Watch the production it deserves - wry, heartfelt, and entirely without unnecessary frills. Four stars and a neighbourly nod.

Tony Knight

Photos by Les Zetlein