The always reliable St Jude’s Players latest production is a journey from suburban Australia in 2007 to Hungary in World War Two with Lally Katz’s Neighbourhood Watch resulting in an excellent version of the play anchored by a marvellous performance by veteran actor Julie Quick as Ana.
Beginning the day after the election of the Rudd Labor Government in 2007 the play is centred in the neighbourhood of Mary Street in suburban Australia, where housemates Catherine (Ellie Schaefer) an out-of-work actor and Ken (Dylan Megaw) a diabetic want-to-be film maker are discussing the election. Across the road, an aging and often cantankerous Ana (Julie Quick) a Hungarian Australian refugee delivers a bag of leaves to her neighbour Katrina (Taya Rose) that have fallen from Katrina’s tree into Ana’s yard. Ana asks Katrina if she will pick her up from a specialist appointment the next day, but Katrina responds that she is too busy. Jovanka (Gail Morrison) an aging Serbian woman tries unsuccessfully to visit Ana.
As the plot progresses Ana and Catherine develop a friendship and as they talk Ana tells Catherine of her life story and the play travels to war time Hungary. As Ana’s journey unfurls, Catherine’s own story develops, affected by her own unhappy memories and life lessons are learned.
The multi award winning and one of Australia’s most performed playwrights, Lally Katz, based the character of Ana on stories that her real life aging Hungarian refugee neighbour told her. In Neighbourhood Watch, Katz honours her neighbour’s desires that her stories should not be forgotten. The plot explores the themes of isolation, friendship, war and the consequences of war, grief and the seeking of refuge. Katz weaves these themes cleverly throughout her play.
Director Lesley Reed, with many years of experience in professional and community based acting and recently directing productions for Galleon Theatre, Adelaide Repertory Theatre and the Stirling Players, has the formidable task of managing nine actors into around twenty five characters throughout the play and taking them from the Australian street to doctor’s rooms, chemist shop and cinema to war-torn Hungarian streets, tram, river crossing and dark fabric factory. This assignment she does seamlessly.
To help Lesley, set designer and construction coordinator Don Oakley, has provided innovative solutions to the staging given the limitations of stage size and budget, even if some solutions require a little creativity by the audience. Sarah Bradley’s original music is brilliant and adds another level to the production.
The whole cast, Julie Quick, Ellie Schaefer, Dylan Megaw, Nathan Brown, Taya Rose, Gail Morrison, Matthew Chant, Christopher Cordeaux and Megan Robson perform excellently, smoothly transitioning through their multiple characters. The experience of performing in over one hundred productions oozes from Julie Quick’s superb performance in particular. Her outstanding acting skills ameliorates the production.
St Jude’s Players’ production of Neighbourhood Watch is an ambitious project by this well-established theatre group, and they deliver an impressive result highlighted by superb acting worthy of the audience visiting Mary Street and beyond.
Reviewed by Rob McKinnon
Rating; 7 out of 10
Neighbourhood watch runs to 19 July 2025; remaining session dates and times are as follows:
Thursday August 14, Friday August 15, 7.30 pm.
Matinees Saturday August 16, 2pm.
Venue: St Jude’s Hall, 444 Brighton Rd, Brighton, South Australia.
Tickets (from July 17): https://www.trybooking.com/DCCMU
Or call 0436 262 628/email bookings@stjudesplayers.asn.au
To book tickets to Neighbourhood Watch , please visit https://stjudesplayers.asn.au/https-stjudesplayers-asn-au-wp-content-uploads-2024-11wp-content-uploads-2024-11-neighbourhood-watch_poster_final-jpg/.
Photographer: Les Zetlein
