“It’s a delight to have such a high-profile and much-awarded practitioner speak to our students,” says Professor David O’Donnell from the School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History.
When he was 19, Roger took a ship to Aotearoa New Zealand, with the full intention of returning to his home in England after the required two years. As it happened, he quite liked it here, and after travelling, he settled back in Wellington to attend the then-Wellington College of Education.
“At teachers’ college they made you take a couple of units towards a degree, and lucky for me that they did. After two years there, I got a bursary to go fulltime at Vic to finish my English degree. My parents were great readers, and I was raised attending the theatre, enjoying the arts.
“I enjoyed teachers’ college because the staff were so interesting and they cared for us personally. They said at the start ‘We’ve got you for two years, and in that time we will make you more interesting’.”
Roger was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in 1996, and in 2020 received his knighthood for services to playwriting.
While he had one story published in his teens in a young persons’ magazine, Roger hadn’t considered it as a career option until he had articles and stories published in the College of Education magazine.
And the stage beckoned, too.
“I was in a few straight plays at Vic, and capping shows, plus end-of-year revues, and some of us put on a lunchtime revue called Gone to Lunch and a lot of it transferred to a late-night show at Downstage Theatre, which had just opened at the time. I then did a lot more revue work at Downstage—it’s excellent training, but you don’t see it like that at the time,” says Roger.
After taking time out from teaching to do a TV show, he realised this is what he wanted to do fulltime. “I am forever grateful to my wife, who at the time had a tiny baby, but supported me, saying ‘well you better go and do it then’.” After some TV plays, he received an Arts Council grant to go to the US and UK, where he went to a major playwrights’ workshop, from which he returned to write the play Glide Time, which turned out to be a hit throughout the country.
From that it was made into a TV series called Gliding On, documenting the day-to-day experience of white-collar workers who aren’t all that passionate about where they’ve found themselves in life.
Considering the perks of writing plays, Roger explains that one of the big advantages of working with plays is that if something isn’t working, you can change it. “Actors will come up with good ideas, and that might go into the next production. Obviously you do try and get it right the first time, but flexibility is one of the advantages of theatre.”
He describes many of his plays as being character-based comedy, and particularly enjoys it when he notices audience members elbowing each other in recognition. “I create ‘elbow-nudging’ situations, and I was tickled to find out about a pair in the audience of Conjugal Rights leaving halfway through saying ‘we can get this all at home’. People recognise the characters and the situations so they laugh. Or feel sad.”
Professor O’Donnell says the students gained a great deal from Roger’s visit, particularly the insights he gave into the art of playwriting. “He shared his passion for creating theatre for children and families, and this really struck a chord with the students, several of whom are interested in making theatre more accessible to all.”
In Wellington for the opening night of the Circa Theatre season of Winding Up, Roger explains he doesn’t go to each and every one of his opening nights, but Circa is special, as the professional theatre that produced his first play.
Winding Up follows the couple from an earlier play Conjugal Rights, as they encounter the dramas of later life.
“The characters are a couple who have been married a long time. They have had their ups and downs. They are hoping to go on a cruise but worry about getting health insurance. Then they go to a funeral and come back saying ‘no way is my funeral going to be like that’, which makes them talk about death and what happens next.”
He explains that these are issues that need to be faced in life, and audiences have enjoyed the opportunity to think about them while having a laugh. The production sold out within eight days, but then (as for so many others) fell victim to COVID-19 lockdown.
There will undoubtedly be opportunities for audiences to see Winding Up in the future.