Golden Weather

Golden Weather is a literary event to celebrate the life and work of Bruce Mason, who was a leading force in the founding of professional theatre in New Zealand. 

 Playwright, critic, journalist and fiction writer, Mason was born in Wellington in 1921 but moved to Takapuna at the age of five. His experiences there formed the basis of his most famous work  End of the Golden Weather, about a boy growing up on Takapuna Beach. This has become so strongly associated with Takapuna that Mason is regarded as one of our own sons, and even has a major local theatre named in his honour. His play is now celebrated with a reading on Takapuna Beach each Christmas Day.

 As a journalist and in his own writing, Mason explored Maori and Pakeha social attitudes, and challenged Maori to tell their own stories. His seminal work The Pohutukawa Tree, exploring prejudice and cross-cultural relationships, was revived by the Auckland Theatre Company to rave reviews in 2009. 

Venue: The Victoria Theatre, Devonport

Date:    Sunday, September 12 from 2 pm

Organised by the Michael King Writers' Centre as part of the North Shore Heritage Festival, with the support of the North Shore City Council Creative Communities Scheme.

Format: Panel discussion with writer and journalist Gordon McLauchlan, playwright Roger Hall, biographer Richard Corballis and Auckland Theatre Company Director, Colin McColl,  followed by a reading from Awatea, with actors from the Auckland Theatre Company.