In photos: A potted history of Auckland's Civic Theatre as it turns 90

Friday, 13 December 2019

Auckland's Civic theatre is 90 years old. Stuff takes a look back at its colourful history, the facelifts it's has had over the years and why it's become such a beloved landmark in NZ's largest city.

The Civic Theatre offered Aucklanders escape when it first opened on December 20, 1929.

It was what is known as an atmospheric cinema, one of only a handful built outside of the US, says retired architect and heritage consultant George Farrant. Farrant, 77, is largely the reason the Civic has made it to 90.

Atmospherics' architects were fanciful, mashing 'motifs from any culture they could get their hands on', he says. From Japanese to Aztec to Egyptian. They'd order domed ceilings to be painted like the night sky, spangled with electric stars.

The Civic Theatre was built in 1929, when Auckland's population was about 200,000.

The Civic's architect went for an Indian theme, with hints of Moorish Andalusia. In the lobby there's a rock-cut Buddhist temple vibe and a large mural of a Hindu wedding. Elephants abound. Enter the auditorium and you're surrounded by minarets.

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Retired architect George Farrant was instrumental in saving the Civic Theatre during his time as principal heritage advisor at Auckland Council.

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Today, the massively refurbished Civic's lobby feels almost exactly as it did 90 years ago - thanks to painstaking work by Auckland Council's heritage preservation team.

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The statues, ceilings, and textured walls are made of plaster and painted shades of gold. The impression is gilded splendour, but they sound a tad hollow when tapped. Bright lights reveal the lot as 'rather tacky', admits Farrant. So the lights stay low; Illusion is king at the Civic.

Its style of architecture was known as atmospheric. Atmospheric Cinemas were popular in 1920s America but seldom seen elsewhere.

'It conjures up an atmosphere of romantic places far away,' Farrant says. 'In the 1920s, with the Great Depression building up, escapism was a valuable thing. That's why the atmospheric genre took off.'

When the depression hit, few had the disposable income to go to the movies, certainly not enough to fill the venue's 2,800 seats night after night. The Civic's owner Thomas O'Brien, who had leased council land to build his palatial cinema, went bankrupt within three years. Management of the building was transferred to Amalgamated Theatres.

Much of the Civic was designed to resemble India's Buddhist rock-cut temples.

World War Two brought it a second heyday in the form of American GIs on rest and relaxation from the Pacific. They swarmed to ogle performer Freda Stark, famed for dancing in only feathers and gold body paint.

Then came decades of decline. The venue was too big to be just a cinema, but its makeshift stage was too small for full-scale live performances that might have filled its 2800 seats.

The Civic was granted heritage status due to its unique role in New Zealand's cinema history.

Plaster started falling from the ceiling and part of the kauri floor was stolen. The building gathered cobwebs and sprang leaks. It wasn't regarded heritage worthy – given nowhere near the same mana as Auckland Museum or the Town Hall, says Farrant. Demolition seemed its destiny.

Gold painted plaster elephants are a motif throughout the Civic.

'The city architect at the time said, 'it's not even bloody architecture, it's a stage set',' Farrant remembers. 'And in some ways he's right. It's all fakery. Marvellous fakery.'

Today the Civic is a distinctive landmark on Auckland's Queen Street.

Architecturally, the Civic is 'marvellous fakery', says heritage building expert George Farrant.

The Civic was built to show films; its large stage wasn't installed until the late nineties.

The theatre could originally seat about 2800 cinema goers; after its renovations, its seating capacity went down to 2378.

The Civic suffered decades of neglect after the Second World War.

Farrant decided the Civic had to be saved: 'It may not be architecture with a capital A, but it's Cinema History in capitals,' he says.

Momentum grew and in 1985 it was granted heritage status. In the late 90s, the Civic underwent dramatic restoration with Farrant at the helm.

To make the venue profitable, a large modern stage was installed to host ballets and opera and plays. Enough of the original plasterwork could be salvaged to replicate what neglect had destroyed. The new plaster was fortified with fibreglass, an update from horse manes and tails that reinforced the old.

Farrant himself made models of shire horses – a troupe of which appeared to have held up the lobby's ceiling – based a grainy old photo and one surviving hoof.

Farrant championed a new starry sky for the auditorium, as pigeon poo had eroded most of the original's wiring. Those old stars were fashioned from aircraft dashboard lights and painted blue, 'which looked quite entrancing to 1929 eyes but to ours looked ludicrous,' he says.

'We put back five times as many stars and made it a dead accurate April sky over Auckland, Orion on one side, Scorpio on the other. Each star is accurate to two decimal places for brightness and each has a unique twinkle.'

The Civic – today managed by Regional Facilities Auckland, operated by Auckland Live and owned by Auckland Council – is the only theatre in the world with an exact Southern sky and working meteorite.

Farrant is modest about his role in the Civic's resurrection, saying he was 'simply the conductor of a very large orchestra'. But he's been immortalised in its murals. One features him as a small figure behind an elephant's backside, another has him as a worried looking mullah.

Farrant says the Civic was the high point of his career, due to its 'magical quality'.

'I hope we equipped it to last another 90 years.'