Victor Rodger

Who is Victor Rodger?

Victor Rodger is a journalist, actor and award winning playwright in New Zealand whose theatre work deals with race, racism and identity. Of Samoan and Pākehā heritage, Rodger's play Sons won acclaim at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards and received Best New Writer and Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play awards. In 2001, he won the Sunday Star-Times Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Rodger's father is from the village of Iva from Savai'i island in Samoa.

Other plays include Ranterstantrum and My Name is Gary Cooper, produced and staged by Auckland Theatre Company and starred a Samoan cast including Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao, Goretti Chadwick and Kiwi actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

Erotic, funny and full of machete-sharp dialogue, one of our most daring contemporary playwrights offers a new insight into the steamy side of Paradise. Sian Robertson, Theatreview, 2007.

Rodger was born in Christchurch. In 1995, Rodger entered Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School in Wellington and graduated two years later. In 1997, his play Cunning Stunts was performed at Bats Theatre in Wellington. He gained the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers’ Residency based at the University of Hawai'i. During 2004-2005, he studied film writing at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam. In 2009, he is the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence in Christchurch.