Bruce Mason
Playwright, actor, critic, fiction writer
1921—1982
I ask that not only my city,
but all, give themselves
to the essence of our cult
– the ritual assembly of an
interested coterie in a space
where magic can be made
and miracles occur.
From Theatre in 1981: Omens and Portents, unpublished ms, Bruce Mason papers, JC Beaglehole Room, Victoria University of Wellington
Where to find it
Set into the ground beside Circa Theatre, facing the harbour.
- Wheelchair accessible
About the author
Bruce Mason’s first major success, The Pohutukawa Tree (1957), examined the conflict between Māori and Pākehā values when New Zealand theatre was almost wholly Pākehā. In 1959, his best known work, The End of the Golden Weather, gave further promise of the distinctive New Zealand theatre that came decades later.
A prolific writer and vigorous critic, he was an authority on a wide range of artistic activities, and his reviews, it was once said, were able to ‘fill – or empty – a theatre’.
With thanks to Christopher Finlayson and Dr Diana Mason