Shakespeare reunion

Press, 28 November 1984, Page 22

Shakespeare reunion

Members of the Canterbury University College Drama Society which toured the country with productions of “Hamlet” and “Othello” 40 years ago will meet again this weekend. Members of the old company will gather in Christchurch for a celebration dinner and tours of their old university, which is now the Arts Centre. , Among those attending is Mr Jack Henderson, who played Hamlet and was lago in “Othello.” He has come from London, where he is the head of the script division at the 8.8. C. televkion studios. Tins week he is directing a seminar at Canterbury University for writers. The Shakespearean tour

of the summer of 1944 and 1945 was the first undertaken in New Zealand by a local company. The artistic director of the two productions was Dame Ngaio Marsh. The Christchurch performance of “Hamlet” in 1943, prior to the tour, was the first time she directed a Shakespearean production. “Othello” was produced in the winter of 1945. Both productions were at the Little Theatre, in the then university in Worcester Street. The tour went to Dunedin first, with nine performances but bad weather and poor audiences all combined with disastrous results.

To everyone’s astonishment the 17 performances

in Auckland were enormously successful, said the organiser of the reunion Mrs Helen Holmes. The season was extended and nearly 15,000 people attended. Then followed a season in Wellington, which was ako highly successful. Spirited exchanges in the letter columns of “The Dominion” about playing Hamlet in modern dress improved box office receipts. Finally the tour played on home ground, with 10 performances at the Radiant Hall. That tour set a trend for student companies to tour, and it was followed by one of “Macbeth” two years later and another of “Othello” to Australia later.