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Website last updated on Monday 28 June 2010

Welcome to Wellington Repertory Theatre

The second production for 2010 will be The Diary of Anne Frank Directed by Tanya Piejus.

Dramatised by France Goodrich and Albert Hackett.
Newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman

Fleeing from Germany to Holland in 1933 to escape the Nazis, Anne Frank and her family, who are Jews, are forced into hiding when Holland itself is invaded by the Nazis in July 1942.
They are joined by the van Daan family and, later, by a dentist.
The play is set in the family’s hiding place, storage rooms and an attic above a factory, which was their home for two years. The play powerfully conveys the tensions and terrors of the period, and the claustrophobic realities of their daily existence: their fear, their hope, their laughter, their love and their grief.
Anne emerges from history a living, lyrical and gifted girl, who confronts her rapidly changing life and increasing horror of her time with astonishing honesty, wit and determination.
The story is well known and the ending unhappy, but this production, which draws heavily on Anne’s diary, provokes discussion about the way human beings treat each other.

Wednesday 28 July to Saturday 31 July at 8:00pm
Sunday 1 August at 4:00pm
Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 August at 6:30pm
Thursday 5 August to Saturday to 7 August at 8pm

Venue - Gryphon Theatre, 22 Ghuznee Street
Bookings – 479 3393 or see Current production for booking online
Tickets - $18 unwaged, $22 waged

Download the June 10 NewsLetter (Word file, opens in a new browser window) and find out what else is going on at Wellington Repertory Theatre.

Wellington Repertory Theatre - its beginnings...

Wellington Repertory owes its foundation to the fortuitous union of two aspects of theatre: first, an old professional with a dream - Leo du Chateau; and, secondly, a small group of Wellingtonians who felt that the new cinema, or 'mechanical theatre', had brought legitimate theatre into total eclipse and who were prepared to do their share to preserve the thespian art for posterity.

About 1913, when Leo du Chateau was associated on the business side with Gregan MacMahon's Repertory Company in Australia, he promised himself that one day he would form a similar company in his home town, Wellington. His opportunity came in 1925, after a tour of the Far East with Sir Harry Lauder, with the intention of giving one year to funding and establishing a Repertory Society which would measure up to the best standards abroad. Once back in Wellington du Chateau communicated his enthusiasm to Vivian Rhind, W.M. Page and Mrs E.W.G. Coleridge. Although they were not entirely sanguine about his scheme, these three encouraged du Chateau to persevere. Mrs Coleridge convened a meeting of those interested while Mr du Chateau arranged head-quarters for the proposed society. At the same time, he and his friends canvassed for foundation members.

On February 26 1926, a public meeting was called at the Society's premises and Repertory was launched. The first production was Shaw's Pygmalion, produced by Leo du Chateau himself, and was presented in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall from May 20 to 26 1926. Four further productions were staged during that year. At first the society was known as the National Repertory Society; but in 1932 this was changed to Wellington Repertory Theatre.

The foundation members of the Society were Sir Charles Skerrett, W. Gray Young, E. Anderson, E.S. Baldwin, C. Clabburn, D.M. Findlay (the first President), J.H.Lee, Mesdames Pike, E.L. Riddiford, J. Hannah, W.E. Herbert, K. Kirkkaldie, and Misses T. Baldwin and L. Hall.