PRINCE of PANTO

Scene One: March 2020 and a frazzled man awkwardly opens the door of his city apartment as he struggles with a huge pack of toilet rolls. Gradually, the lockdown experiences of four neighbours in adjoining apartments are revealed as they stay at home for a month to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

This imagined scene is from Lockdown, a play Sir Roger Hall briefly contemplated writing, but just as quickly abandoned. Instead, he has chosen to focus on completing a second volume of his memoirs, Winding Down.

It’s more than 20 years since Hall produced the first volume, . It told the story of a 19-year-old English lad who took a chance at a new life in New Zealand and went on to become our most successful playwright, with 36 stage plays to his credit, as well as musicals, pantomimes, TV sitcoms including and , radio plays, and books for children. Hall’s is his most successful theatrical achievement; in addition to its enduring popularity with New Zealand audiences, it enjoyed an acclaimed run on London’s West