Waipukurau Little Theatre celebrate 130 years with Victorian farces from first performance

Rob Blamires in the Waipukurau Little Theatre workshop, creating Victorian architecture for the 130th anniversary performance. Photo / Rachel Wise

Until recently, the Waipukurau Little Theatre was gearing up for its centenary celebrations ... in 2025.

Then some bright spark went digging around on the internet for old images of the Waipukurau Theatre.

Rob Blamires, longtime theatre supporter, jack of all theatre trades and bright spark, for it was he, discovered something extra: a performance review in an old issue of the Waipawa Mail on the Papers Past website.

The first performance by the recently-formed Waipukurau Dramatic Club.

In September 1893.

Coming to grips with the fact they had missed their own 100th birthday by 30 years, the Little Theatre crew decided they wouldn’t be missing their 130th, so they set to work.

The performance for the 130th anniversary was easy to choose - they would put on the same two Victorian farces performed in the now long-gone Waipukurau Town Hall, in September of 1893.

The Waipukurau Town Hall, which was at the Pioneer Corner site, was the first venue for the Waipukurau Dramatic Club back in 1893.

The review helpfully listed the plays and the music, and the scripts were duly found: Done on Both Sides by popular Victorian playwright John Maddison Morton, and Box and Cox, Married and Settled by J Stirling Coyne.

The music proved more elusive. At that first-ever performance a six-piece orchestra - with Mr J Winlove as the leader - played the overture from Faust before the curtain rose for the first play.

That music was quickly located, but in that long-ago interval the orchestra delivered another overture - “Vulcan”.

This one was nowhere to be found, until Rob emailed the producer of Hymns on Sunday, who provided a different name, which led to another composer, Charles Gounod, who had written music for Faust, but also wrote Vulcan’s Song for his opera Philemon et Baucis.

Mystery solved.

Rob says Gounod died in 1893, so perhaps the overture was played in his memory. Having sourced the sheet music and a willing troupe of musicians, it can now be played on a Waipukurau stage once more.

That just left auditioning actors, doing the set construction, lighting and sound, props, costumes, ticket design, food and drink, ticket sales, preparing a memorabilia board, and growing a set of mutton chop whiskers - this part Rob kindly took upon himself to do.

Hilary Blamires is in charge of costumes and is spending every Wednesday from lunchtime at the theatre with a small team of unpickers and stitchers making everything as authentic as possible. “More hands are welcome,” she says, “you only need to be able to sew a straight line.”

The cast is well into rehearsals under the direction of Jules Hamilton, challenged with getting to grips with the grammar and language of Victorian times.

They’re hoping for reviews as good as the one in the Waipawa Mail of September 8, 1893 which said of HR Hodding playing the lead character of Pygmalion Phibbs: “The audience, who were evidently unprepared for such a meritorious delineation of the part, testified their approval of the manner in which the character was portrayed by loud and frequent applause.”

High praise indeed.

Tickets go on sale next week, with a black-tie gala dinner for opening night, October 28, which will be Victorian-themed, with Oruawharo Homestead providing the meal.

The performance runs until November 4, after which Rob says he will delight in shaving off his mutton-chop whiskers.

Tickets from Eventfinda or Betta Electrical Waipukurau.

Willing backstage helpers, sound and lighting people and actors always welcome; contact Waipukurau Little Theatre on Facebook.