Flat out on flat whites

Roger Hall faces his writing skills on a pair of baby boomer couples heading off on their OE in his latest work. Photo / Janna Dixon

It's not hard to see why playwright Roger Hall has been compared to the Energiser Bunny. At 70 - an age when most of his peers are slowing down and kicking back at the golf course - Hall is still pumping out plays like clockwork. His latest effort is Four Flat Whites In Italy, an Auckland Theatre Company-staged tale of two 60-something couples sharing the pleasures and pitfalls of a late-in-life OE.

Hall is refuelling with a coffee and pastry at a central-city Auckland cafe. Matter-of-fact, with a dry, subtle sense of humour, he's slightly brusque. You get the sense that whether or not he's liked (at least by a journalist) doesn't matter to him.

Rather than batting away the question of whether he sees himself as New Zealand's greatest playwright, he considers it through a rational commercial lens. "The merit or otherwise of my plays aside, I've written more plays and fed more into the box office than any other New Zealand playwright."

Since his debut play Glide Time sold out in 1976, British-born-and-bred Hall (he moved to New Zealand at 19) has penned at least a play a year. Performed around the globe as well as at home, these include Middle Age Spread, Spreading Out, By Degrees, Market Forces, C'Mon Black, Social Climbers, The Book Club, Taking Off, Who Wants to be 100? and Who Needs Sleep Anyway? (the latter a collaboration with actor/director daughter Pip).

Blending cracker one-liners with understated pathos and satirical social criticism, Hall's bitter-sweet plays have been compared to those of Anton Chekhov, the great 19th-century Russian scribe. (Incidentally, they share a birthday.)

Plays aside, he's written children's books, musicals, TV series, radio series, poetry, magazine articles, short stories, autobiography Bums on Seats, and is presently penning his fifth children's pantomime in as many years for Wellington's Circa Theatre.

But the next show he'll see come to life is Four Flat Whites In Italy. With relationships and the Kiwi character at its heart, it's classic Hall fare. Clutching a copy of Lonely Planet, recently-retired librarians Adrian (Stuart Devenie) and Alison (Darien Takle) are gearing up to immerse themselves in Italy. But when their best friends pull out of the trip, they find themselves sharing the holiday with new neighbours, Harry (George Henare) and Judy (Annie Whittle). Will they be able to keep up their busy sightseeing schedule? Will Adrian's wandering eye push Alison too far?

Anyone who's travelled in tandem will identify with the situations the characters find themselves in, and the compromises they make. Such as the "terrible nuisance" of splitting a restaurant bill (the scenario that was the genesis of the play). "It depends if everyone's had roughly the same amount to eat and, particularly, to drink. Once, it doesn't matter, but if it starts happening regularly ... !"

Although his primary, "very loyal" audience are Baby Boomers, Hall knows the value of drawing younger generations to his plays. So playing "every Italian woman", is Toni Potter, Shortland Street party-girl Alice, who should inject some glamour and pull a younger crowd.

Potter can't wait. "It's a rite of passage for a New Zealand actor to perform in a Roger Hall play," she says.

And yes, Hall's nervous about opening night. He's always had "agonies of doubt" about each play from first idea to closing night. "Opening night's a bit terrifying, because you still don't know how the audience is going to take it ... and [there's] a lot of showbiz people who are much harder to impress."

Although he still attends the premieres, Hall prefers going to one or two later shows, once the more-relaxed audience isn't peppered with showbiz people, celebs and reviewers.

So, is he a naturally funny person? "No," he says with a rare laugh. "Well, I do like cracking jokes. Occasionally if I'm on song I can be quite funny."

Hall has no plans to put down his pen anytime soon as writing has become a way of life. "There's plenty of other 70-year-old writers so I think it's the sort of occupation where people just don't stop."

* Four Flat Whites In Italy plays at Auckland's SkyCity Theatre, June 11 to July 4, then North Shore, Hamilton, New Plymouth and Tauranga.