Who Laughs Last

Who Laughs Last? profiles Roger Hall, New Zealand’s most successful playwright. Three decades after the opening of Hall's Middle Age Spread became a hit, the original cast return for 2006 follow up Spreading Out. Shirley Horrocks' documentary explores the secrets behind Hall’s successful brand of comedy (which includes dozens of stage plays, and TV hit Gliding On) and closely explores Middle Age Spread and Spreading Out. Alongside excerpts from both, there are interviews with John Clarke, Grant Tilly, Ginette McDonald on the birth of Lynn of Tawa, and Hall himself.

Every now and then, particularly at a dinner conversation, people will suddenly have a look of horror on their faces that "uh oh, this is going to go in a play".

– Roger Hall

Key Cast & Crew

Roger Hall

Subject

Peter Elliott

Actor in play Conjugal Rites, Narrator

Stephen Press

Camera Operator

Ray Henwood

Subject

John Clarke

Subject

Shirley Horrocks

Director, Writer, Research, Producer