New Zealand Drama

Logan Park High School Drama students were stunned by the brilliance of the latest play at The Fortune Theatre. Over 125 students packed out the forum evening and they were not disappointed. The production showed New Zealand Theatre at its best.

Ten-year-old Michael Hope sleeps on a volcano. This is his playground, his paradise. Michael becomes fascinated when his new teacher describes how his hometown on Banks Peninsula was formed millions of years ago and he begins a project mapping his tiny community.

As he prepares for the Christchurch Science Fair, unbeknownst to him, there are undercurrents of change and discontent slowly rippling through the adult world around him.

Peninsula is a beautifully crafted, touching, and bittersweet look at a small-town New Zealand community in the 1960s.

Peninsula was written in Dunedin while Gary Henderson was resident at the Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage and teaching at Allen Hall, the home of the University of Otago Theatre Studies Programme.

Directed by Patrick Davies