Reviews

Tilt 2020 (Program 2) is the conclusion of a two part celebration of the talents of WAAPA’s final year Performance Making Students. The first part of this production was The Blue Room’s first performance since February, and this second program is also performed in this venue, once again using two of the Blue Room Spaces.

Making up for lost time, The Psychic is Spotlight’s second production since reopening at the end of July.

Billed as “a Murder Mystery ... of sorts” the play is set in the depressing two room basement flat in New York City of Adam Webster, a mystery writer whose life revolves around the characters he creates.

For his latest adventure, the writer has decided to lure his characters into the plot via a hand-written sign advertising psychic readings in his window and from there the plot thickens (or unravels, as the case may be).

This revival of Lally Katz’ 2011 hit was snatched from the New Theatre stage by COVID just before its opening night in March.  Now the plucky theatre – with strict protocols and distancing – has thankfully reopened its doors, and this play, with a different director, designer and some cast changes. 

Neighbourhood Watch is a deceptively difficult darkish comedy, telling in cinematically short scenes and flashes, an Australian neighbourhood story of inter-generational friendship, as historic griefs are reforged into new hopes.

From the moment we join the socially distanced queue, we can feel an air of excitement that, for most of us, has been missing for the last six months. Not only is it a night out at the theatre, but at a newly rebuilt one: Her Majesty’s Theatre is a splendid reinvention of the original building. The façade remains but nearly everything behind it is new, with an almost-1,500 seat auditorium on three levels (though in these times, only every other seat was used) and it is furnished with rich reds and a forest of curved wood.