by Kathleen Gallagher
Peace Plays comprises two radio plays – Charlie Bloom and Shanty and The Angel and one theatre play – Hautu. Kathleen Gallagher received the NZ Playwrights Award in 1993. In 1996 her radio play Charlie Bloom was a finalist in the NZ Radio Awards and in the NZ Media Peace Awards.
1. Charlie Bloom
Charlie Bloom was first produced by Radio NZ on Hiroshima Day August 6 1995, by Carol Dee with music by Michael Dee. At Moruroa on 12 Sept 1966 the French exploded a 120 kilton bomb at 600 metres despite unfavourable wind conditions. 3610 kilometres away, the fallout cloud from the bomb is intercepted by a rainstorm and falls on Samoa. Charlie Bloom tells the story of a couple living there and their experience of living with undiagnosed radiation poisoning.
2. Shanty and The Angel
Shows an inner city Auckland street at dawn. You hear the voices of the people on the street, their worries, their loves, their joys, their woes. You hear them singing, laughing, waking, talking. You discover the makers of the peace on the street.This play was first produced by Radio NZ in November 1991 with Jacqui Dunn as the director and music by Brendan Power, and Ramai Hayward playing Shanty.
3. Hautu – Peace People of WWII
Hautu Peace People of WWII tells the tale of two Conscientious Objectors in Hautu, a rugged detention camp at the southern tip of Lake Taupo, and how their families in Christchurch and on the West Coast coped and supported them. This is the story of courageous peacemakers during a time of war.
Director: Steven Arnold. Writer : Kathleen Gallagher.
During WWII over 800 Conscientous Objectors were sent to Detention Camps throughout New Zealand. Hautu Detention Camp, situated south of the southern tip of Lake Taupo was one of the toughest.
This drama tells the tale of two men in Hautu, Pete Bawn a Methodist Christian Pacifist and Tim Flanagan a West Coast Irish Catholic. It tells of their womenfolk – wives, mothers, sisters and children surviving at home in Christchurch and on the West Coast between 1939 – 46, and explores the lives of these pacifists, our peace people of WWII.
PREMIERE SCREENING was Sunday 4th September 4.00pm, 2016 at Hollywood Cinema, Sumner, Christchurch
