Playmarket acknowledges the passing of John Broughton, a cherished leader in Aotearoa theatre and influential storyteller who helped pave the way for generations of Māori playwrights. Moe mai rā e hoa.
John Broughton was of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungunu Ki Heretaunga descent. He attended Hastings Boys High School and Massey University, where he wrote for Capping revues and gained a BSc in Microbiology. After a period working as a researcher for Glaxo and time spent in Hawaii, where he was a performer at the Polynesian Cultural Centre, John trained in dentistry at Otago University, graduating with a BDS in 1977.
Having worked in private practice as a dentist for 10 years, in 1989 John was appointed Lecturer in Māori Health in the Otago Medical School’s Department of Preventative and Social Medicine. He became a Professor in that department and was the Director of the Ngai Tahu Māori Health Research Unit. His major research fields were Māori oral health (the subject of his PhD thesis) and injury prevention for Māori. In retirement he held the status of Emeritus Professor and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. He also served as an officer in the Territorials 3rd Field Ambulance and was awarded the Efficiency Decoration in 1992. He was also a holder of the Defense Service Medal.
John scripted two Otago University Capping Shows during the late 1980s, Peter’s Pantomime and Hokonui Jones and the Sword of Destiny, and in 1988 enrolled for Roger Hall’s Theory and Practice of Playwriting course at Otago University. During that year he completed his first two plays, Te Hara (The Sin) about the consequences of a transgression of tapu, and Te Hokinga Mai (The Return Home), which shows the experience of two soldiers, one Māori and the other Pākehā, in Vietnam.
His subsequent stage work included the linked two-handers, Ngā Puke (The Hills) (1990) and The Private War of Corporal Cooper (1991), the former focusing on a Māori/Pākehā romance during WW2, the latter exploring a New Zealand soldier’s experience in France in WW1; Michael James Manaia (Downstage Theatre, 1991) about a Māori soldier’s time in Vietnam and its tragic post-war consequences; Marae, a lighter cabaret-style piece written for the 1992 International Festival of the Arts in Wellington; Anzac (Fortune Theatre, 1992), exploring the Gallipoli campaign; the one-act play Frankie and Hone (1993); 1981 (Fortune Theatre, 1995) about the civil war that raged in New Zealand during the winter tour that year by the Springboks; Mana, a theatre in education piece on unemployment, disability and drink-driving (1995) and A Day at the Races (1995) about the impact of HIV on Māori. In 2018 he edited material from WW1 soldiers’ diaries into the play Homecoming, which followed a Ngāi Tahu soldier (Private Hohepa Teihoka) who served at Gallipoli, and then a number of Otago University students whose study was interrupted by service in the First World War. It was presented at Allen Hall on the University of Otago campus.
John also wrote the libretti for Ka Awatea (The New Dawn), an opera composed for the National Māori Choir (1994), and Showband Aotearoa, a musical with a score by Rim D. Paul (2008). His multi-media work, Summer Starlight, Winter Moon was presented at the 1998 Aoraki Festival. He scripted Ngā Mahi Ora (Careers in the Health Workforce), a video targeted at young Māori (1989) and the teleplay Tears of Stone.
John’s varied interests – the military, the university, rugby and music – all found their way into his 30-year playwriting career, which was conducted on top of a demanding academic workload. Several of the plays have been published and anthologised.
John was the 1990 winner of the Bruce Mason Award. He was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2026 for services to Māori health, theatre and the community.
His most widely seen work in fully professional productions in established theatres was probably Michael James Manaia, which premiered at Downstage Theatre in Wellington in a production by Colin McColl, featuring Jim Moriarty in the title role. It toured to Dunedin and to the 1991 Edinburgh Festival where it was shortlisted in The Independent newspaper’s Theatre Awards. There were later revival seasons in Wellington and at Palmerston North’s Centrepoint Theatre. The play was revived in a new production by Taki Rua at Downstage during the 2012 International Festival of the Arts, later touring to Centrepoint Theatre, Q Theatre, Fortune Theatre and the 2012 Melbourne Festival.
Of his writing John said, “I just want to tell stories. There’s so much to be offered from both the Māori and Pākehā worlds. Māori and Pākehā do have to take more serious stock of each other. There’s no point in being polarised. It is just a matter of people having a respect and understanding for each other.
Alister McDonald
Fortune Theatre Dramaturg (1985–2018)