Story: Theatre companies and producers

Allan Wilkie Theatre Company, 1929

Allan Wilkie Theatre Company, 1929

These members of the Allan Wilkie Theatre Company, photographed in Wellington in 1929, display the elaborate period costumes typical of much live theatre in this period. Wilkie was a Shakespearean actor who first toured New Zealand in 1915. In 1920 he formed his own company, which toured Australia and New Zealand until 1937, claiming never to perform the same play two nights running. When money was tight they turned to light comedies and melodrama. Among the novice actors who gained experience in Wilkie's company was New Zealander Ngaio Marsh. 

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Crown Studios Collection
Reference: 10x8-2039-F
Photograph by Crown Studios

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Mark Derby, 'Theatre companies and producers - Wartime and interwar theatre', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/43399/allan-wilkie-theatre-company-1929 (accessed 28 March 2024)

Story by Mark Derby, published 22 Oct 2014