Watch and Act

Katie McAllister’s one woman show is a delicious blend of theatre, stand-up comedy, slam poetry and storytelling. A call-out to love and protect the environment under the threat of climate change, it is also a love letter of sorts to the movie Notting Hill, Nigella Lawson and the Australian country town of Denmark.

The title Watch and Act comes from the emergency warnings that you will have heard interrupt your ABC radio. Working as an emergency broadcaster over several summers, you would have heard Katie’s voice calmly advise Western Australians about bushfire threats. Inspired by the Black Summer and Woorooloo fires, this show blends Katie’s personal experience with OCD and her feelings about climate change with a wild-ride through her imagination, and a very interesting drive down the Albany Highway. 

Katie is a likeable, funny and extremely engaging performer who has the audience enthralled throughout. In a beautifully curated monologue we go to unexpected places, and despite the very serious themes of Climate Change and her journey with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, this is an uplifting and hopeful hour of excellent theatre.

Sensitively and thoughtfully directed by Michelle Endersbee, Watch and Act has one of the best set designs I have seen for a solo show, with Clare Testoni’s simple but beautiful set supporting the show well, and Katie’s costume - including her gorgeous orange lined ‘power jacket’ a lovely support to the ideas of the show. Georgina Carmond’s sound design is top-notch, with a strong, evocative lighting design from Kristie Smith.

Watch and Act is a thoroughly enjoyable heart-warming little gift of a show that is a very special piece of theatre.

Kimberley Shaw