Merton Emerton Hodge (28 March 1903 – 9 October 1958) was a
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
and
medical practitioner
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
.
Born in
Taruheru,
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay (Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the north ...
, 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 pursued his lifelong interest in theatre and continued to write plays throughout his working medical life.
Plays
Hodge is best known for his comedy ''The Wind and the Rain'', which was performed 1,001 times, from 1933, at
St. Martin's Theatre in London's West End, and six months in 1934 at the Ritz Theatre on New York's Broadway,
"''The Wind and the Rain''"
IBDB, accessed 16 August 2021 toured the world and was translated into nine languages.
Plays produced in London:
* ''The Wind and the rain'', St Martin's Theatre, 1933–1935;
* ''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
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer a ...
came in Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
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
External links
* Hodge's personal papers are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library''
Wellington, New Zealand
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, Merton
1903 births
1958 suicides
New Zealand male stage actors
University of Otago alumni
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
New Zealand male dramatists and playwrights
Suicides in New Zealand
Suicides by drowning
20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights
20th-century New Zealand male actors
20th-century New Zealand male writers
20th-century New Zealand medical doctors