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Merton Hodge

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Nationality
  
New Zealand

Name
  
Merton Hodge

Role
  
Playwright


Full Name
  
Merton Emerton Hodge

Born
  
28 March 1903 (
1903-03-28
)
Taruheru, Poverty Bay, New Zealand

Occupation
  
actor, medical practitioner, playwright

Died
  
October 9, 1958, Dunedin, New Zealand

Merton Emerton Hodge (28 March 1903 – 9 October 1958) was a playwright, actor and medical practitioner.

Contents

Born in Taruheru, Poverty Bay, New Zealand, he studied at Kings College in Auckland, Otago Medical School in 1925, graduated in 1928 (M.B., Ch.B), completed post-graduate studies at Edinburgh University.

As well as continuing his medical studies Hodge pursed his lifelong interest in theatre and continued to write plays throughout his working medical life.

Plays

Hodge is best known for The Wind and the Rain, which was performed 1000 times in London's West End, six months on New York's Broadway, toured the world and was translated into nine languages. Plays produced in London:

  • The Wind and the rain, St Martin's Theatre, 1933, 1934, 1935;
  • Grief goes over, Globe Theatre, 1935;
  • Men in white (anglicised form), Lyric Theatre, 1935;
  • The Orchard walls, St James Theatre, 1937;
  • The Island, Comedy Theatre, 1938;
  • Story of an African farm, New Theatre (from Olive Schreiner's novel), 1938;
  • To Whom we belong, Q Theatre, 1939;
  • Once there was music, Q Theatre, 1942;
  • Recordings

  • My Life in the Theatre, series for overseas broadcast for British Broadcasting Service.
  • His suicide by drowning came in Dunedin in 1958.

    Publications

    The plays The Wind and the rain, Grief goes over, Men in white, The Island, Story of an African farm and a novelised version of The Wind and the rain, 1936.

    References

    Merton Hodge Wikipedia