Hall a wry Kiwi observer

PLAYWRIGHT: Roger Hall at home. PICTURE / MARTIN SYKES

One of our most prolific and popular playwrights, Roger Hall emigrated to New Zealand from the UK in 1958, settling in Wellington and resuming his career in the insurance industry.
In the 1960s he studied English at Victoria University and attended Wellington Teachers' College.
I remember Roger Hall at Wellington Teachers' College, a tall, quiet, reserved man who didn't seem interested in socialising with the larger student body. Most of us were 17-year-olds who'd just tumbled out of high school and this Roger Hall chap did appear to be quite old. I have realised he must have been in his late 20s, so yes, he was very old.
As he was teaching and acting in Wellington his first foray into play writing was in writing plays for children. From there he progressed to writing stage and television scripts for adults, Pukemanu and Glide Time being two of the earliest and among the well known.
Middle Age Spread must be Roger Hall's best known play. It enjoyed a 15-month season on London's West End, winning the Comedy of the Year award in 1978. Glide Time is another well known Hall comedy. Originally written and produced as a stage play it became popular as a television drama reflecting the lives of fictional public servants. Gliding On was the successful sequel.
Reading through the list of Roger Hall's plays I was struck by the sequence of their appearance which mirrors events and stages in his own life, from writing children's plays when he was teaching to You Can Always Hand Them Back when he became a grandfather, to his latest play, Last Legs. He said that Last Legs was his fifth 'last play', but despite his resolve to the contrary he'd started writing another one.
With more than 40 plays to his credit Roger Hall has an impressive number of awards as well: 1977 and 1978 Burns Fellowship at Otago University; 1987 Companion of Queen's Service Order; 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University; 2003 Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit; 2014 Scroll of Honour from the Variety Arts Club of New Zealand and, in 2015 he was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.
While Roger Hall's plays highlight New Zealanders and our foibles they do so with humour. We're not perfect but we are sometimes quite funny. When Repertory Theatre produced Red Riding Hood last December there were many uniquely Kiwi references that made us smile. I found five more pantos written by Roger Hall during my search and hopefully Repertory Theatre will be able to produce another one this coming season.