Share clubs and black humour - Roger Hall remembers the '87 market crash

Playwright Roger Hall recalls taking a hit in the 1987 crash. But he also managed to write a hit play about his experiences in a share club.

"I belonged to a neighbourhood share club and we knew nothing," he says. "And then I joined another group with lawyers and bankers. They were real experts and we lost a lot more money."

This Friday is the 30th anniversary of the 1987 stockmarket crash. The Business Herald has been looking back with a series of articles this week.

Hall rose to prominence with the play Glide Time and TV series Gliding On, about life in the Wellington civil service prior to the reforms of the 1984 Labour Government.

His play The Share Club was first performed in June 1987 and documented the changing times through the conversations in neighbourhood share clubs.

Share clubs were a huge trend that swept through New Zealand in the mid-1980s recalls.

"The book club is a good analogy because there was a lot of wine and food," he says.

Members would pool resources by putting a set amount of money into a group account each month, then they'd meet to discuss the market and invest the funds.

"If you have a look at the play, we'd just quarrel about what to buy and who had information. Really you had to accept it was more for entertainment purposes."

He went on to write another play about the group in 1988, called After the Crash.

With some other members of his club he also published a satirical book of photos and anecdotes The Crash of '87 which poked fun at the business leaders and companies involved.

There was real fervour in the run up to October 1987, he says.

"Everyone was just pouring into it. The television news started showing the stock market prices every night. And night after night after night they went up. So people thought they were missing out."

Hall only lost money he could afford to lose and stuck with the sharemarket.

Hall's play Book Ends is on at the Howick Little Theatre from November 11 to December 2.