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Whangarei theatre group Bogwood Productions brings  'The 53rd Victim' to life for the first time this month. The award winning story, by playwright Pip Hall, is based on the London Tube bombings and the young New Zealander who tragically became known as the '53rd victim’.

Joann Crowley, courtesy of Scene Magazine, takes a sneak preview.

Whangarei theatre group Bogwood Productions brings  'The 53rd Victim' to life for the first time this month. The award winning story, by playwright Pip Hall, is based on the London Tube bombings and the young New Zealander who tragically became known as the '53rd victim’.

Joann Crowley, courtesy of Scene Magazine, takes a sneak preview.

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On July 7, 2005, bombs exploded on three London Tube trains and a double-decker bus. Fifty two people died. From the carnage of the bombings came stories of bravery and hope – including that of a young female Kiwi doctor, who tended the wounded and dying.

Media around the world picked up on the young woman’s story. One particularly astute reporter delved a little deeper into the young woman’s background, finding out she was not a qualified doctor after all.

As the investigations continued, the bogus doctor’s life began to unravel as all manner of stories about her fantasy life came to the fore.

Forced to resign from her job in London, the young New Zealander tragically became the so-called ‘53rd victim’ when she was found dead in her flat two weeks later, apparently from natural causes.

Also in London on the day of the bombings was New Zealand playwright Pip Hall (above), who was forced to walk into town after finding her Tube station closed.

“We kept on walking and then there were heaps of people around,” she recalls.

“It was really surreal. No one really knew what was going on and we just ended up wandering right into Tavistock Square, where the bus had blown up. And then it was really eerie, really quiet, apart from lots of sirens.”

On her return to New Zealand, Pip, daughter of New Zealand dramatist Roger Hall, was intrigued by the story of the bogus doctor’s fall from grace and subsequent fate.

“I was really fascinated about what kind of person she must’ve been,” she says.

Seeing the potential for a good story, Pip put pen to paper. The resulting play, The 53rd Victim, headed off over 70 other scripts to win the New Zealand Play Award last year.

Pip intersperses fact with fiction, including changing the central character’s name.

“At the beginning I stuck to the facts and rearranged them for dramatic purposes, but as I got into it I created more fiction,” she says. “The play is really character-based and I feel I’m quite empathetic and intrigued by her. I don’t judge her. I’m interested in what her life was like, and why she made those decisions.”

This month, Whangarei theatre group Bogwood Productions brings The 53rd Victim to life for the first time. Whangarei lawyer Kelly Johnson is directing the show.

Kelly says The 53rd Victim follows the journey of a normal New Zealand girl, her mental deterioration, and the way she perceives all the other characters in her life around her.

“It’s a real mystery that keeps you trying to figure out what happens next,” he says, adding that the fun part for the audience is the “voyeuristic opportunity to look into this person’s life”.

Twelve actors take on the roles of 35 characters, which Kelly says is challenging but also incredibly exciting. “Having actors play different parts has influenced the style of the production enormously,” he says.

“There are lots of scene changes, but it’s not done in a traditional style. People think of sets and actors changing costumes etc, but we’re going for more of an expressionist style. “The play jumps through time from scene to scene and that’s the exciting theatrical challenge of it.”

Having worked with many well-established plays over the years, the Bogwood cast are excited about now working on an original new work. “Although Shakespeare is really exciting, it’s great to have the opportunity to do a contemporary New Zealand play,” Kelly says. “This is almost like a fresh canvas and there are no precedents to draw on.”

Courtesy of Scene Magazine - Whangarei's free leisure and lifestyle monthly.