Hatch’s horrible history

A PINT OF OIL PER PENGUIN: Stuart Devenie plays Joseph Htch, a Southland politician with a passion for penguin oil in the one-man play he performs at the Tairawhiti Museum at the weekend. NZ Herald picture

THE sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island is not actually part of the Kermadec Islands chain but both land masses are painfully remote and, more significantly, they share the plate boundary that makes them seismic hot spots.

So it is fitting that the story of a New Zealand hunter of Macquarie penguins should be part of the schedule of events running alongside Tairawhiti Museum exhibition Kermadec: Lines In The Ocean.

Written by Geoff Chapple, Hatch: The Wildly Tragic Tale Of Joseph Hatch tells the bizarre (but true) story of Joseph Hatch (1837-1928), who served as both Mayor of and MP for Invercargill.

Hatch is, however, best-known for the business venture that cost millions of penguins (not to mention the seals) their lives and triggered an early environmentalist movement.

Already in trouble back home for sealing outside the restricted season, Hatch in 1889 moved his centre of operations to Macquarie Island, halfway between New Zealand and the Antarctic Circle, where his men slaughtered elephant seals and penguins for their oil.

Public opinion was so bad that Hatch moved to Australia, but returned to undertake a lecture tour to promote the virtues of penguin oil.

And having this material on record proved to be a goldmine for Chapple, whose play imitates one of Hatch’s lectures,

According to Auckland actor Stuart Devenie, who plays the eponymous character, “it may sound unpromising but there is a lot of humour and irony”.

Appealing humanity“The audience ends up very conflicted,” Devenie says. “Although what he’s doing is appalling, his humanity appeals.”

Though Devenie delivers his 65-minute monologue in frothy muttonchop sideburns and Victorian coat tails, the show’s subject is as relevant today as it was a century ago when the virtues of hard work and progress were finally challenged for some of their ecological side effects.

And as the actor says, some of Hatch’s exploits really were horrible: his workers laboured in terrible conditions, abandoned in the sub-Antarctic for months on end; and he is rumoured to have boiled penguins alive during his three decades of production on Macquarie Island.

The hot-tempered Hatch manages to offend and appal but, having failed to realise that society has changed and his views may be a little outdated, is at the same time unintentionally comic, Devenie says.

“It’s about far more than just the penguins. There’s a lot of humour that comes out of the tension. Hatch thinks people are laughing with him but they’re laughing at him.”

Devenie has played Hatch for eight years and during that time has found himself in some interesting situations. Several audiences have become so worked up by Hatch’s character that they started arguing with him.

But after eight years together, he admits Hatch has got under his skin.

“He is an irascible old bugger . . . quite an extraordinary character to play.”

Despite the repellent side of Hatch’s character, critics say Devenie “brings him to life with a performance that is totally engrossing . . . his excellent craft, humour and timing confirming him as one of the our finest established actors”.

“From his well-crafted entrance through to his summing up, Devenie’s performance has just the right mix of pace, pause and emotional restraint,” TheatreReview says.

“Hatch is an insightful hour of theatre that audiences all over New Zealand (should) have the opportunity to experience.”

Hatch: The Wildly Tragic Tale Of Joseph Hatch is on at Tairawhiti Museum on Saturday (shows at 2pm & 6pm).