A relaxed and informative interview with New Zealand theatre pioneer Richard Campion. He is seated in his back garden, beside a corrugated iron shed, with his dog “Mr Brown”.
First question from an offscreen Peter Coates (after an unedited-out “OK, well let’s roll” and the like) is: “Richard, can you tell us something about where you enthusiasm for theatre came from?”
“It’s a hard one that. Actually, when you look at little kids - it’s there! They’re all actors. Their imaginations burn.” (He gestures with his palm outward as he speaks and Mr Brown repeatedly places his paw there.)
He talks about the route from Wellington College to professional theatre. He played Woman With A Handbag in a play by fellow pupil Bruce Mason. Later he played a Welsh mining boy called Dickie for Ngaio Marsh. (”Throughout life from then on she called me Dickie.”)
He remembers New Zealand’s isolation in World War II. Communities were “all shut off from each other ... Between South Island and North Island was all closed down ... Fundamentally NZ was all chopped off from the world ... Only a few films were coming; hardly any touring companies and yet we had these magnificent theatres. ”
He tells of NZ’s mission to discover its identity and the formation of a professional theatre company after World War II .
They used to do one-act plays as the British Drama League; “It was one of the things that kept us alive”. He remembers “the howls of laughter” which greeted “the word ‘Paekakariki’ coming on a stage when you’re only supposed to make [plays] about Paris or London ... I thought to myself, ‘my god, we are the ignorant little bastards aren’t we?’.” He laughs heartily.
“When I was at varsity I got sick of studying Shakespeare and not doing it.” So he approached his professor for permission to do King Lear. “We stuttered our way through it - but fantastic!”
“I knew I had some talent as an actor. But I had more talent as a director. Because I was bossy.”
“ News had come through that the Old Vic had started a theatre school. “So off to England we went .. by flying boat ... So I get into the Old Vic and it’s been bombed .. The whole of London was in ruins .. But, ‘never mind, we’re going to start again’ ...”
Conversation continues and later Mr Campion’s clothes have changed. So it’s likely the filming has resumed on another day.