Amber

It’s one thing to write a 90-minute play about a girl/woman who never leaves the stage and who addresses the audience throughout. But it’s quite another to actually play the part yourself. Such are the jobs taken by Nikita Waldron in the central part of Amber, as she moves from her final year at a Sydney school to the beginnings of a literary life shadowed by the early death of a best mate.

Lithe and boundlessly energetic, Ms Waldron places most of the blame on herself and her inability to go through with the kissing procedures of her friends. This is linked to a complete addiction to the filmic Rom-Coms of UK-based movie director Richard Curtis.

The early scenes of Amber and her best friend Gabby (Esha Jessy) are joyful, and three good-looking boys (Harry Stacey, Ashan Kumar and Kurt Ramjan) arrive together on cue. She even thanks God, who will loom large later, for ‘all the work on my breasts’.

But best friend Luca will lose his life in a fall from a roof, and this event marks a big turning point for Amber, who can’t work out why such a major event should happen to her. Perhaps it had something to do with her inability to kiss properly?

She pushes out the boy who will share her first flat. In time Amber develops an interest in writing plays and is soon on the way to becoming an author.

All this is presented at the Old Fitz in an easily transformed setting (by Hailley Hunt) that first becomes inside Amber’s early bedroom, later a rooftop, a travelling café, and inside a church.

The acting is good. I especially liked Esha Jessy as good friend Gabby, off to America at just the wrong moment.

The director is Mehhma Malhi, who moves things along quickly and meaningfully. There are significant contributions in Sound (Madeleine Picard) and Lighting (Isobel Morrisey), and many lighting-fast cues for them both.

All is brought together by the skill of Nikita Waldron who, in a significant manner, reveals her many-sided talents.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Phil Erbacher