One Hill of a Fight returns to Meteor Theatre

The cast of One Hill of a Fight at The Meteor theatre in Hamilton. A second season opens on Saturday. Photo / Supplied

The well-received Hamilton play One Hill of a Fight makes its return to the Meteor Theatre on Saturday August 12.

The show follows Hamilton politics during the 1920s, the history behind Garden Place and what happened to the hill that used to sit in what is the Hamilton CBD today.

The play will run until the August 19 and producer Russell Armitage looks forward to the new wave of people to watch the play.

One Hill of a fight by local playwright Michael Switzer - who also directs - deals with the political battle in the 1930s between the Hamilton borough engineer Rupert Worley, the council and ratepayers over removing the hill where Garden Place once was.

"We ended on a high note last time, and I was saying if we bring it back, the question was will people buy tickets," Mr Armitage says.

"But I took the gamble and Lodge Real Estate and Harcourts Real Estate bought complete nights."

"[They said] it was about property development and people getting the sections around Garden Place, so they booked whole nights which is about 120 seats each, so that was an enormous pull, and now virtually every performance is sold out."

Mr Armitage, who has been active in the arts community and has helped put on classical concerts over the years, has found a new reason to keep producing plays in his retirement.

The joy for him is seeing more students from schools seeing live productions for the first time.

"We had a group of students from Raglan who had never been to a live performance in their lives before and they just thought it was terrific."

"They were a lower decile school so they couldn't afford the tickets, however because of a charity we were able to get them out here."

"Now for the second season, I've got three schools coming and to see their reaction, that gives me a real buzz and makes me think, perhaps I'll do one more play next year."