A few years ago playwright Roger Hall helped the Fortune Theatre celebrate its 40th anniversary season. This year the theatre is returning the favour. Hall speaks to Rebecca Fox about his ties with Dunedin’s only professional theatre.
Ask Roger Hall if he has ever considered going into a retirement village and you get a quick ''no''.
He quickly qualifies that with ''I'm not disparaging those places. They're a very good answer to lots of people's needs''.
Hall (78) then adds he is ''already half-way there'' as he lives in an apartment block.
''I'm still fit as a fiddle.''
It also does not stop him from poking fun at the lives of those living in retirement villages in his upcoming production of Last Legs at the Fortune Theatre.
The play marks Hall's 40th anniversary of involvement with the theatre, of which he is patron.
''I've had a lovely time at the Fortune. I have an enormous affection for it.''
Hall's connection with the Fortune goes back to the late 1970s when he came to Dunedin as the Robert Burns Fellow.
''I stayed 16 years.''
While the Fortune did not stage his first play, Glide Time (which turned into television's Gliding On) until it was successful in other theatres, it turned out to be be so popular in Dunedin the next production was cancelled so it could continue its run.
''That relationship has been maintained over the years.''
Fortune artistic director Jonathan Hendry said celebrating Hall's 40-year connection with the theatre was important, calling it ''a unique and lasting relationship''.
''His impact is huge and long-lasting. In meeting local people over the last year it's become clear how much he's valued and thought of with warmth across our community. From a builder at a Rotary function who proudly cites jokes about him that Roger's put into his work to countless mentions of his plays from years ago still vivid in people's minds, he remains a force.
''Roger has a sixth sense in a way. He seems to know more than anyone else how to speak directly to his audiences and give them something that they both recognise and feel they want to see. Often actors and directors really learn about his writing when the audience responds in performance with their delight. He also manages to balance comedy and satire as he reflects our Pakeha culture so vividly. He has charted aspects of our social change over the decades and explored the role of women within that with care and a knack for telling the right story at the right time.''
Hendry said Hall would be in Dunedin for the opening of the play (April 29) and would present a writers boot camp.
''We're thrilled to have him join us for our opening weekend. He's speaking at public events and holding a writers boot camp on the Saturday morning that looks to be informative and fun. It feels the right time to celebrate this remarkable writer 40 years after arriving here in Dunedin as a Robert Burns Fellow, where he and Dianne settled for many years with their young family. He is a part of our local theatre DNA.
''Because of that and with actors who were in the world and local premieres of many of his plays, we're holding public readings every weekend so audiences can get a taste of the range of this extraordinary body of work.''
Those readings include Glide Time and Middle Age Spread as well as The Book Club and A Way Of Life, which has not been performed in the South Island.
''We will be sharing memories and local stories after each reading, as it is important to note that Roger is as valued in our local amateur theatre as well. Perhaps even more importantly by the large audiences who continue to flock to his work. He's loved by many and we at Fortune want to acknowledge that.
''I can't wait to see Roger himself read alongside original cast members Ray Henwood and Ross Jolly in Glide Time. We like to refer to them as the three Rs.
Fittingly, Roger will play 'the Boss'.''
Fortune dramaturg Alister McDonald said the theatre had staged more of Hall's plays - 36 - than any other theatre.
''Of the 32 Fortune productions to sell more than 4000 seats, 19 were written by him''
The Fortune's two most popular single seasons of plays are The Share Club and Four Flat Whites in Italy, both by Hall.
Four Flat Whites was seen by 7% of the Dunedin resident population in a month.
''The 6606 seats sold to the Fortune production of Four Flat Whites in Italy were more than all the seats sold to non-Fortune productions of plays staged in Dunedin in 2009; those seats represented around a third of all the Fortune's seat sales that year.''
The box-office income his plays have generated has been a key element in the survival of the Fortune over that time, helped by his fundraising activities, quiet acts of patronage and ongoing public endorsement of the Fortune, McDonald said.
Hall was chairman of the Fortune's board in 1983-84 and continued to take part in the board until the late 1980s, helping to fundraise to keep it open.
''The Fortune was in desperate straits, the DCC didn't support it then and it was tough going.''
A firm believer in the importance of live theatre, Hall says it is a mark of a ''civilised town'' to have a live theatre.
Although he does admit, having to compete with the flat screen (television) had made it harder for live theatre.
''It's a tough business and I really admire people who loyally support the Fortune.
''If there hadn't been live theatre in Dunedin I would've only stayed the year.''
The Fortune provided him with the perfect venue to launch plays and allow him to make changes.
''The Fortune is just right for that.''
Hall's production of Footrot Flats was an example as the Fortune had the audience dress up for the show.
''It was nice everyone was so involved.''
He had been incredibly tense about his spoof of Mills and Boon's Love off the shelf as it was quite different from his other work.
''But it took off. It went to England and nearly got on the West End. But the Fortune did it first.''
Over the years, there have been numerous hit shows and awards for Hall, who is still writing. His 2009 play Four Flat Whites in Italy broke box-office records across the country, records previously set by Hall.
One of his later works, Last Legs focuses on the lives of a group of residents in an upmarket lifestyle village.
With villages proliferating, and the lifestyle they provide attractive to some of his contemporaries, it is topical.
''It's easy to make fun of them, but they are great things for many people.''
While the villages might look comfortable they were often ''seething'' with rivalries and jealousies and ''I'm told, quite a lot of sex''.
''With Alzheimer's reducing people's inhibitions, too, there are all those aspects to it. They don't always get on.''
The cast features Ray Henwood, Catherine Downes, Donna Akersten, Vivien Bell, Jane Waddell and Stephen Gledhill.
For Waddell, who was last in Dunedin for Over the River and Through the Woods, Last Legs is the latest of Hall's plays she had starred in over the years.
''My first play was Middle Age Spread and that was quite a long time ago.''
She was just two years out of drama school and it was her first taste of being in a successful play.
''It transferred to the Opera House. It was so popular it ran for five nights.''
Waddell has done at least 18 of Hall's plays, including six of his pantomimes, including Take A Chance on Me, Taking Off and Who Wants to be 100?
''I really enjoy doing comedy, and Roger knows his audience very well. He knows how to place the lines so the laughs come.
''As a working actor one wants the opportunity to work, so it's always a joy to play Roger Hall to full houses.''
Hall is able to draw recognisable characters who are flawed, which adds to the comedy, she says.
''People who know retirement villages will recognise the characters.
''He seems to have got a very accurate finger on the public pulse. He writes things people can recognise and situations people identify with.''
The cast of Last Legs recently completed a seven-week season of the play in Wellington so are well versed.
''It's familiar territory although on opening night you've always got to be on your mettle.''
See it
Last Legs, by Roger Hall, Fortune Theatre April 29-May 27.
