Since ‘Glide Time’ in 1976, Sir Roger Hall has captured the voice of the average Kiwi and the mood of the times in plays that mix comedy with an acid edge of social realism. Now 86, Sir Roger’s latest work finds laughs in the problems of ageing through returning character Dickie Hart, the curmudgeon-in-chief of earlier plays ‘C’mon Black’ and ‘You Gotta Be Joking!’ Sir Roger was in the audience at the new Court Theatre when ‘End of Summer Time’ opened. “Very impressed” was his review, both of the production and of the new home for Christchurch theatre.

‘End of Summer Time’ is your first play to be performed in the new Court Theatre building. You were there on opening night – your impressions?

Christchurch has always been very good for the arts, and The Court Theatre in particular. Way back when it started under Elric Hooper it has always known what its audience wanted. So it’s been very consistent over the years. I was very impressed with the building and I was very impressed with the production. I was delighted with Ross Gumbley’s performance as Dickie Hart, he’s so good. I was thrilled to bits to see it. And it was a lovely theatre space, nice and intimate, just right.    

You must have fond memories of earlier Court Theatre productions of your plays – any highlights?

One production in particular was ‘Four Flat Whites in Italy’, which ran and ran and ran for 11 weeks. And it was still getting audiences when they reluctantly had to take it off. Considering most productions run for about two or three weeks, 11 weeks was extraordinary. It was still packing them in and the audiences were just loving it. 

Ross Gumbley is playing the role of Dickie Hart in The Court’s production of ‘End of Summer Time’ – how is it seeing a new actor take on a role shaped by its first outings? 

It’s one of the interesting things about writing plays. The same words in a script and you see different productions and they can be surprisingly different, even though the same words are being said. Most people of course go to see a play and then they don’t go again but if they have the chance to go and see a different production they might be surprised at how different they are, even with the same words and so on. 

Apart from having a good night out, is there one thing you hope audiences take away from seeing ‘End of Summer Time’?  

Well, a good night out is pretty good in itself. Just accepting that we get older and with it your body fades a bit and has certain problems, and that Auckland’s not such a bad place as people might think.

In the transition from script to production, are you a tweaker, looking over the director’s shoulder, or do you take the money and wish them all the best?

Haha, I’m actually all of those. Well, with a first production, inevitably in rehearsals there are going to be changes. You listen to what the actors have to say and the director – you'd be mad to ignore them – and you don’t have to accept all their suggestions. The actors can contribute quite sensible things, practical things, that the writer takes on board. I think a writer would be crazy to say when sending in a script ‘This is set in concrete’ because it shouldn’t be. It’s a collaboration really.     

From ‘Glide Time’ in 1976 to ‘End of Summer Time’, you have captured the vernacular of the Kiwi Everyman and Everywoman – any tips there? Do you jot down snippets overheard on the bus? 

I say to people I’m an observer. I don’t go to a dinner party to spy on people but I clearly seem to pick up all sorts of things that people say and I absorb it and it comes out maybe years later. I do tell people I’m not going to make them identifiable on stage, I won’t embarrass you, people won’t recognise you. But clearly, all writers exploit other people, it’s the way you do it really.

Has it been easier to capture that voice as an outsider?

When I first came here from England in 1957, my ear was picking up all sorts of things that I found quite different, a different vocabulary. My favourite line, although people probably don’t do it now but many people had homes with venetian blinds and somebody at work said that they had lux’d the venetians and I found that so funny, still find it very funny. 

Your plays have also consistently dealt with themes of the time, be it Rogernomics, sharemarket crashes, sexual politics, COVID or the problems of ageing – what draws you in to a theme? 

It’s a fair question. If an idea comes up and I push it to one side and if it won’t go away then I say it’s knocking on the door and wants to come in and I start writing. And that might take quite a while before I do that. These days there’s no hurry to write another play. Some people say I should write another play right now. I started writing one on afterlife but that very quickly got into problems. I’m not saying it’s dead but at the moment the Muse is not tapping me on the shoulder.

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