Mercury Theatre

About

The Mercury Theatre is a theatre in Auckland, New Zealand, located on Mercury Lane, off Karangahape Road. It was home to a theatre company of the same name for two decades. It was built in 1910 by the architect Edward Bartley and is the oldest surviving theatre in Auckland. Built in the Edwardian Baroque style, it was initially known as the Kings Theatre. On being converted into a cinema in 1926, a new entrance was built on Karangahape Road – this is now the Norman Ng Building. The building gained a Category II listing from Heritage New Zealand in 1990.

From 1968 to 1991 it was the premises of the Mercury Theatre Company. In 1966 the Auckland Theatre Trust was established by Professor John C Reid. It raised finance to open the building as a professional theatre in 1968. The first production initiated by the theatre was The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie. At least 12 productions were put on annually after this period ranging from children's pantomimes to serious tragedy-dramas including those by Shakespeare and Chekhov. Notable actors who performed at the theatre during their careers include Pam Ferris, Lee Grant, Roy Billing, George Henare, Michael Hurst and Ian Mune. Raymond Hawthorne joined the theatre in 1971 and worked as an actor, director and a tutor and became artistic director of the theatre in 1985 until its closure in 1992.

Although the theatre steadily attracted visitors, the extravagance of the theatre productions and running costs forced the Mercury Theatre as it was to close in 1992. [ citation needed ]

Following its closure, Symon Peters and David John Zam formed the company Mercury Playhouse Ltd. to acquire the theatre. They and its general Manager Frank Hobson described the present state of the Mercury building and the theatre's operation, and their plans for the property in an article published in the New Zealand Herald, March 17, 1994. Peters was a director of the City Wise group, which carried out a number of developments at New Lynn and in central Auckland. The group collapsed in 2001 and Symon left for Australia. The Peters family's property speculations and projects led various members into financial crises and subsequent scandals. [ citation needed ]

The records of the Mercury Theatre are now held at Auckland Libraries.

In November 2009 the Equippers Church, who bought the church in the early 2000s, put the building up for sale for 'upwards of' two million dollars. The church withdrew the theatre from the market in 2012. The church subsequently closed the theatre in April 2022 so that it can undergo significant renovations, to both strengthen and modernise the building as a whole, while creating new spaces, restoring it to its original capacity and maintaining the building's Edwardian character. The renovations are planned to finish in 2024.

- 1968 The Admirable Crichton, Dark of the Moon, Alfie, Fings Ain't What They Used To Be, The Merchant of Venice, A Flea in her Ear, Wait Until Dark, Caucasian Chalk Circle, There's a Girl in my Soup, Lock Up Your Daughters, Winnie the Pooh

- 1969 An Evening of Mime with Francis Batten, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Under Milk Wood, Toad of Toad Hall, The Crucible, Teahouse of the August Moon, Lysistrata, Hamlet, A Farewell Performance by Francis Batten, Semi-Detached, Marat/Sade, Virtue in Danger, Irma la Douce, The Sun Rises in the West

- 1970 Hadrian, Earth and Sky, Alice in Wonderland, The Price, I Do! I Do!, Dames at Sea, The Ruling Class, The Birthday Party, Othello, Henry IV, Zorba, The National Health, Narrow Road to the Deep North

- 1971 The Hostage, The Lark, Prospect from the Park, The Magistrate, Tiki and Things That Go Bump, Peer Gynt, Oh What a Lovely War, As You Like It, Forget-Me-Not Lane, Sergeant Musgrave's Dance, The Country Wife, Canterbury Tales

- 1972 MacRune's Guevara, Conduct Unbecoming, Charley's Aunt, Kean, A Man for All Seasons, The Skin of our Teeth, Love's Laour's Lost, Threepenny Opera, Tom-Tom and the Happy Army, You Never Can Tell, There's a Leek in Your Hat, Lulu, Guys and Dolls

- 1973 Jumpers, Hay Fever, The Lady's Not For Burning, The Rocking Cave, The Owl and the Pussy Cat, Mister King Hongi, Butley, The Misanthrope, Macbeth, Lear, Annie Get Your Gun

- 1974 You Can't Take It with You, Macbeth, A Little Night Music, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Heroes and Butterflies, Three Sisters, Jacques Brel, Absurd Person Singular, The Wizard of Oz, King Lear, Equus, Ground Level, The Sea Horse, Cabaret, An Evening with Katherine Mansfield

- 1975 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Elephant, London Assurance, Pinocchio's Travelling Circus, The Taming of the Shrew, A Marvellous Party, Travesties, The Mouse Man, Kiss Me Kate, Marieken

- 1976 Tarantara! Tarantara!, Happy Arcadia, Savages, Agincourt, Toad of Toad Hall, A Little Night Music, Otherwise Engaged, From Berlin to Broadway, The Duchess of Malfi, Chermin de fer, More Canterbury Tales

- 1977 Trumpets and Drums, Well Hung, The Last of the Knucklmen, Diary of a Madman, Cupid in Transit, Man of La Mancha, A Stretch of the Imagination, Blithe Spirit, Super Peg, Hello and Goodbye, Lost in the Stars, Mrs Kiwi Arthur, Glide Time, Julius Caesar, When You Comin' Back Red Ryder, The World of Good, Arsenic and Old Lace, Alpha Beta, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

- 1978 Royal Hunt of the Sun, Mrs Kiwi Arthur Present, The White Cliffs, Rattle of a Simple Man, Cole, Bullshot Crummond, The Cat and the Canary, The Merchant of Venice, Dirty Linen, New Found Land, Middle Age Spread, The Rivals, Ashes, Habeas Corpus, State of Revolution, Private Lives, The Good Doctor, Tomorrow will be a Lovely Day

- 1979 Cinderella, Something's Afoot, Henry IV Part I, Same Time Next Year, State of the Play, Old Kind Cole, Just Between Ourselves, Man Friday, The Naval Officer, Abigal's Party, The Club, Don Juan Comes Back from the War, Privates on Parade, Spider's Web, Writer's Cramp, The School for Scandal, Staircase, Home

- 1980 The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mime over Matter, Bedroom Farce, P and O – 1930, Uncle Vanya, Prisoners of Mother England, Mothers and Fathers, Godspell, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedians, Once a Catholic, Gershwin, A Life in the Theatre, Whose Life is it Anyway?, Just One Last Dance, The Boy Friend

- 1981 You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Moby Dick Rehearsed, The Importance of Being Earnest, Stage Struck, Father's Day, 50/50, Bremen Coffee, Too Darn Hot, Brecht Songs, The Puny Little Life Show, The Taming of the Shrew, Potiphar's Wife, Between Night and Morning, Hancock's Last Half Hour, Flight of the Godwit, An Enemy of the People, Barbarians, Prisoners of Mother England, Middle Age Spread, Hosanna, Sauce for the Gander, The Immortalist, Glide Time, Bodies, Oliver!