Amber (Old Fitz) ★★★½

Written by Nikita Waldron. World Premiere. Old Fitz Theatre. 28 Mar – 11 Apr, 2025.

Amber is a rom-com, and like all the best rom-coms, it sneaks in some darker material on the way to its HEA (or HFN, at least).

Amber (played by writer Nikita Waldron) is obsessed with romantic comedies, from the films of Richard Curtis and Nora Ephron to Sex and the City (yes, even a bit of And Just Like That), not to mention her romantasy crush… Edward Cullen from Twilight. She has it all planned out. But while she waits for that perfect first kiss, she might be missing out on the best things real life has placed in front of her… at least that’s how she remembers it all happening.

What starts off as a cute, teenage scenario quickly takes on more dimensions in Waldron’s funny and nuanced script. For all the pop-cultural references and pastel pink shades around her, Amber is actually processing real pain. Her narration is unreliable, full of wishful thinking and last-minute corrections, as she recounts the story of meeting the boy who would become her first great love, then losing him, and then looking for some kind of third-act resolution.

But life doesn’t work like a story, and real people deal with their emotions in plenty of unpredictable and strange ways. From deliberately chasing the wrong guys to making bad drunk decisions, Amber grows up into a messier world than her teenage self would recognise. Waldron’s script does a great job of putting us into Amber’s head, including hiding truths from the audience that Amber herself doesn’t see.

Waldron also has the acting chops to pull off the role, taking Amber from an awkward teenager through her messy twenties and beyond. She has written a funny, complex role for herself that plays into her own skills for gentle comedy.

Director Mehhma Malhi (who excelled with All Boys at KXT on Broadway – reuniting with two of the cast here) brings some nice directorial touches to the script, showing again that she has a strong grasp on character dynamics. Simple but effective lighting cues (lighting by Izzy Morrissey) and sound design (by Madeleine Picard) convey a lot of meaning. To the whole production team’s credit, there are subtle touches to Amber that don’t scream for your attention but gently guide the audience where it needs to be.

In an interesting twist, the four male characters are played by three actors (Harry Stacey, Ashan Kumar, and Kurt Ramjan), with each actor playing one of Amber’s suitors and also collectively playing the guy Amber is in love with—Luca. The power of this only becomes apparent later, as Amber admits she is trying to find a guy who reminds her of Luca, with each man representing a part of his personality she’s attracted to. Together, as Luca, the three actors form a kind of shifting memory, or dreamlike version of a real person. It’s simple but highly effective.

At the end of the day, though, this is a romance, and as such, the heroine must stumble, learn her lesson, rise, and reach her romantic finale. This is where the tropes of the genre begin to reassert themselves, from Amber’s unlikely publishing success to her realisation that love is more complicated than she imagined. Happily ever after? We’ll see.