Story: Theatres, cinemas and halls

In the 1980s Auckland's grand Civic Theatre was deteriorating and threatened with demolition. This inspired the local writer Peter Wells to make The mighty Civic, a film about its place in the city's cultural history, which captured the dream-like qualities of the theatre's spaces and helped to galvanise public support for its retention. This image, taken in 2009, is of the Civic’s flamboyant foyer.