1953: A True Story

Performed by Jonny Brugh.
Directed by Andrew Foster

1953 is a one-man show written and performed by Jonathan Brugh. Combining two true stories to bring an image of a nation developing its identity.

In that year young Edmund Hillary scaled Everest, the Queen had her Coronation and visited her young New Zealand. Shortly afterwards, two further events in New Zeland's history crossed paths in a tragic and poignant true story.

1953 - Young New Zealand cricketer ,Bob Blair, a 22-year-old fast bowler from Wellington was on debut in South Africa with the New Zealand Cricket Team.

On Christmas Eve his bride to be Narissa Love was travelling on the Wellington to Auckland Overnight Express Train when it plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River. A six metre wall of water, ice, boulders and mud - the result of a discharge from Mt Ruapehu's crater lake - had wiped out the Tangiwai railway bridge only minutes before the express was due. The speeding steam locomotive - carrying almost 300 New Zealanders home for Christmas - was sent crashing into the raging torrent below. Narissa Love died in the crash. Her body was never found.

New Zealand awoke on Christmas morning to the news that a total of 151 people had perished in the disaster. The tragedy touched every single New Zealander. It seemed that everyone knew someone on the train.

News of the disaster filtered through to the 14 young Kiwi cricketers and to the South African cricketing world who recoiled in horror and sympathy.

Then came the news that kiwi bowler Bob Blair had lost his fiancé. Blair, a 22 yrs fast bowler from Wellington on debut. His bride to be, 19 year old Narrisa Love, also from Wellington.

The sun rose shortly on the stunned team, who left the devastated Blair behind, went out that morning and prepared to bat against the fire power of the South African fast bowling attack.
What unfolded was the most emotionally charged day in New Zealand cricket history. A remarkable and confounding story of futile heroism set in the savage intense world of Test Cricket. The combination of the extreme pace of the South African bowlers and a dangerous pitch saw two New Zealand batsmen hospitalized and most of the others struck with fearsome blows. The courage of the New Zealand batsman was epitomized by Bert Sutcliffe a hero of NZ cricket who returned from hospital, against medical advice with a heavily bandaged head, and struck seven huge sixes.

However Sutcliffe's courage was surpassed only by Bob Blair whose unexpected appearance on the ground stunned the crowd, his team mates and the opposition.

The sight of Bob Blair and Bert Sutcliffe walking out to bat arm-in-arm with tears streaming down their faces, silenced the packed stadium, then brought them to their feet as they gave the courageous pair a huge ovation.

Five years later writer R.T. Brittenden recorded the moment in ‘Great Days in New Zealand Cricket’- "Out of the gloomy tunnel beneath the stand, into the clean white sunlight, Blair walked slowly, fumbling with his gloves, and as a man the spectators in the huge stand stood for him, stood in complete and poignant silence. Grown men, among them the New Zealanders in the pavilion and the South Africans on the field, shed tears at this moving moment and they were not ashamed."

The way the cricketers dealt with their crisis was a metaphor for what their fellow New Zealanders were dealing with at home. As Brittenden observed, "This was indeed triumph from tragedy, a great and glorious victory over misfortune and despair."

“The emerging character of the young country had stood strong and proud in the face of extreme adversity and had taken another step along the path towards defining New Zealand's national identity.”

Event listed by The PumpHouse Theatre

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