Playwright glides on through award win

AFTER 40 years in the business, playwright Roger Hall reckons the time has come to do up his study.

The veteran dramatist now has the funds to jazz up his work space after he was among the winners of this year’s Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement.

Hall was one of three recipients who received $60,000 in recognition of their contribution to New Zealand literature. The others were social anthropologist Dame Joan Metge and author Bernadette Hall. The Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer’s Fellowship winner, Dr Martin Edmond, was also honoured with a $100,000 prize.

Hall’s CV includes more than 40 plays and four decades of television writing, including classic TV series Glding On, Buck House and Pukemanu as well as, more recently, Spin Doctors.

He was thrilled to be the first Kiwi playwright to win the award. ‘‘It’s very nice. The recognition is probably the most important thing but the money will be useful.

‘‘It sounds boring, but I’ll probably spend it on doing up my study, which is the smallest room in the house. I’ve produced some of my best work in it, but it could do with a bit of life.’’

Hall said he was currently busy putting together Roger Hall’s Robin Hood, The Pantomime, which will be staged at Circa Theatre in Wellington from November 12 to December 22.

Pantomimes were always a family tradition for him at Christmas, and they were a great way to introduce children to live theatre. ‘‘They are just great fun for everybody.’’

After a few decades of writing plays, he still found the exercise as challenging as ever, he said.

‘‘Trying to write something that will hold the audience’s attention for two hours is not an easy thing to do. Writing plays is a bit like running a marathon – every now and then you hit the wall but you learn to get through it.’’

He hoped he would be the first of many playwrights recognised by the Prime Minister’s Awards.

‘‘Theatre is in a really good place in New Zealand right now. There’s always more plays on than I’m able to go see.’’

Every year, the awards welcome nominations from New Zealanders in the genres of nonfiction, poetry and fiction. These are then assessed by an expert literary panel and approved by the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand.

The recognition is probably the most important thing but the money will be useful. Playwright Roger Hall, who plans to now do up his study