''The End of the Golden Weather'' is a play by

Bruce Mason Bruce Edward George Mason (28 September 1921 – 31 December 1982) was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980, he was appo ...

about a boy's loss of innocence in Depression-era

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It was written for solo performance by the author but can be performed by an ensemble and was made into an award-winning feature film directed by

Ian Mune Ian Barry Mune (born 1941) is a New Zealand character actor, director, and screenwriter. His screen acting career spans four decades and more than 50 roles. His work as a film director includes hit comedy ''Came a Hot Friday'', an adaptation of c ...

in 1991. It was workshopped in 1959 and first performed for the public in 1960. The script was published in 1962 and again in 1970 after Mason had performed it more than 500 times.Mason, Bruce ''The End of the Golden Weather A voyage into a New Zealand childhood'', New Zealand University Press and Price Milburn, Wellington, 1962, 95pp, SBN 7055 0010 1 In 1963 he performed it at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

. Set in the fictitious beachfront township of Te Parenga on

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

's North Shore in the 1930s, the main character is a nameless boy of about 12 (called Geoff in the film), based on the young Mason and a man from his childhood. The play is in four parts: :''Sunday at Te Parenga'' :''The night of the riots'' :''Christmas at Te Parenga'' :''The made man'' In the first half the boy spies on an abortive riot by his unemployed neighbours, and sees them and the local policeman in a new light. In the second, he befriends and tries to help a mentally challenged young man who has taken the name of a famous boxer, Firpo. Firpo wants to run in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and challenges local youths to a race on the beach, which he loses disastrously. Firpo is institutionalised, and the boy's greater understanding of the world's injustices is symbolized by the decay of the

broom A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

flowers at the site of Firpo's demolished

bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

at the end of summer. Mason took the play's title from that of a novel the narrator in

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...

's ''

The Web and the Rock ''The Web and the Rock'' is an American bildungsroman novel by Thomas Wolfe, published posthumously in 1939. Like its sequel, '' You Can't Go Home Again'' (and also ''The Hills Beyond'') it was extracted by Edward Aswell from a larger manuscript af ...

'' had wanted to write ( p 12). It has become a cliche in New Zealand for the end of summer.

''The End of the Golden Weather'' (1991 film)

The 1991 film was directed and co-produced by

, who also wrote the screenplay with the cooperation of

, although the film was finally made after Mason's death. The film, 104 minutes long, was made with a budget of $NZ3 million, and shot on Te Muri Beach, Takapuna beach and Takapuna Grammar School. Helen Martin says that the film keeps to the spirit of the play, although Mune chose to leave out the Depression aspects (e.g. the 1932 Queen Street riots) and concentrate on the Geoff and Firpo story.''New Zealand Film 1912-1996'' by Helen Martin & Sam Edwards p156 (1997, Oxford University Press, Auckland)

External links

*
''The End of the Golden Weather'' at NZonScreen (with video extracts)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:End of the Golden Weather, The New Zealand plays New Zealand drama films 1991 films 1990s New Zealand films 1991 drama films 1960 plays