Neighbourhood Watch Play Analysis

Transition and character prove to be crucial elements used by playwrights Jane Harrison and Lally Katz in their powerful contemporary Australian plays. The playwrights manipulate these elements to create powerful, moving scenes in both Neighbourhood Watch and Stolen that tackle issues including the ‘Australian’ identity and isolation. By similarly incorporating elements, styles and acting techniques intended by both playwrights, my group was able to create a fully theatrically realised piece that communicated Australian issues powerfully.
Alike to Neighbourhood Watch, Stolen explores identity in a way that educated white Australians on the severity of the issue. Throughout the play, we see each of the Indigenous characters lose their identity or have it changed dramatically, from being a once positive, carefree child. Jane Harrison skilfully sets each character a different circumstance, describing to the audience that loses of identity did not occur to a small amount of the stolen generation, but to each and every individual affected by it. She uses transitions to show how each character loses their identity over time; how …show more content…
The play addresses the question of what it means to be Australian, and answers in a rather open and debatable WAY. Neighbourhood Watch suggests that there is no such thing as one, Australian identity; rather one for each of the twenty-one million living here. Katz opens up this idea by providing vivid imagery of Ana’s life in war torn Hungary, evoking feelings of sonder from the audience. The transitions to and from Ana’s home in Hungary are one of the play’s many challenges, considering that most theatres do not have a revolving stage or set. However these transitions are crucial in connecting Ana’s past and present, and crucial in communicating the vivid, complex identities of everyone around