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Who would have thought? Clean, green New Zealand was the subject of the first international conservation effort when one of its citizens - a former MP, no less - was found to be slaughtering penguins.
Strange but true.
All is revealed in the Auckland Theatre Company's latest production, writer Geoff Chapple's "rollicking one-man play" Hatch or The Plight of the Penguins.
In the late 19th century, Joseph Hatch, played by the wonderfully droll Stuart Devenie, set up a penguin oiling operation on subantarctic Macquarie Island. Around 3 million king and royal penguins were slaughtered in 25 years.
No one blinked an eye, at first. This was an era when all kinds of animals - not to mention certain peoples - were hunted for sport and slaughtered wholesale.
Then Antarctic explorers began returning with photos and grainy film footage of penguins, and people the world over fell in love with the cute birds that walked upright and looked as if they wore tuxedos.
"Penguins," declares Devenie majestically, "became a repository of ecological sentimentality."
So began the end of Hatch's business. But the former Invercargill Mayor and MP wasn't giving up without a spirited fight.
Hatch held a series of public meetings and lectures to argue his case when Britain's high and mighty (who launched a letter-writing campaign in the Times), the Seamen's Union, ornithological societies and writer H.G. Wells lobbied to shut him down.
During the Magic Lantern Shows, as he called them, Hatch slandered his enemies, appealed to reason and accused his opponents of hypocrisy in an attempt to justify the penguin-oil trade.
ATC artistic director Colin McColl and designer Tony Rabbit have recreated Hatch's Magic Lantern Shows, using Hatch's own photos to capture the dramatic tension of the conflict.
McColl describes Hatch as a larger-than-life Victorian social entrepreneur, well-known for his powerful and persuasive speeches, who ultimately outlived the times. He says the story illustrates changing social mores and values and offers an insight into early New Zealand nationalism.
"The production is quite unlike anything the Auckland Theatre Company has done," says McColl.
The person who exposed this forgotten chapter in our conservation history is writer and journalist Geoff Chapple, who in 2002 was named New Zealand's first social entrepreneur for his work on establishing Te Araroa, a nation-long walking trail.
He discovered Hatch at the Southland Museum, on his way to the subantarctic islands, but thought little about the character until he read Cherry, the biography of Apsley Cherry-Gerrard, the youngest member of Scott's last Antarctic expedition team. It explains how Cherry-Gerrard started the campaign to close Hatch's oiling operation.
"There was tension and that's what you need to create good drama," says Chapple, who wrote the play - his first - during a residency at the Michael King Writers' Centre in Devonport.
He gave the script to the ATC for development through its literary programme.
"I was fascinated when I read the script to know this all really happened and that Hatch was a real person," says McColl, who sees its development as part of the move toward telling New Zealand stories.
Using Hopetoun Alpha for the Auckland performances was a deliberate and important decision. Designer Tony Rabbit says recreating the ambience of a late 19th or early 20th century public meeting relies heavily on the building.
"It's a fabulous venue which feels just like you've set up for a meeting that night. It creates a sense of occasion for a modern audience."
After its Auckland season, the premiere of which is part of the Auckland Festival, Hatch or The Plight of the Penguins tours the South Island and heartland Hatch territory.
Devenie smiles mischievously when he says he's particularly looking forward to a performance which has been booked out, weeks in advance, by a penguin preservation trust.
What: Hatch or The Plight of the Penguins
Where: Hopetoun Alpha, Mar 15-Apr 20
