Roger Hall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger Leighton Hall, CNZM, QSO (b. Essex, England, 1939) is arguably New Zealand's best-known playwright. He writes comedies with a serious vein of social criticism and a feeling of pathos running through them.

Hall's best-known work in New Zealand is probably Glide Time (1976), which depicts the frustrations and petty triumphs of a group of workers in a government office. It gave rise to the popular 1980s television series Gliding On and a sequel play, Market Forces (2005), set in the "restructured" public service environment of the early 21st century.

The characters of The Share Club (1987, before the Stock Market crash) and After the Crash (1988) were also translated to television in Neighbourhood Watch.

Hall's best-known works internationally are Middle Age Spread (1978, revised 1980), which had a run in the West End and was also filmed in 1979, and Conjugal Rites which was made into a situation comedy series in the UK.

Hall was a Burns Fellow in 1977.