February 27, 2008

Dorothy McKegg

John Smythe      posted 11 Feb 2008, 10:05 PM

Dorothy McKegg was an early inspiration for me and many others, strutting about the Opera House stage as the Principal Boy in David Tinkham’s Wellington Repertory pantomimes, almost always on the YA stations’ Monday night radio plays … Then on through the years in so very many stage plays, with the odd bit of telly and film thrown in.

Always compelling, she had the ‘x-factor’ and was wonderful to work with. A true institution.

Michael Smythe                posted 12 Feb 2008, 11:13 AM

A trail blazer, a trouper, a stalwart, a damned good actor, and she had legs – in both senses of the term.

Fenn Gordon      posted 12 Feb 2008, 03:31 PM

I was lucky enough to tour with Dotty on the Joyful & Triumphant (Robert Lord) tour in my very early days of producing.  Dotty was an excellent actor, a total professional – and a dry, wonderfully trenchant wit.

Gavin Rutherford             posted 14 Feb 2008, 10:52 AM

Rest in Peace Dottie

Mel Dodge          posted 17 Feb 2008, 03:05 AM

You are a beautiful actress filled with heart and soul. It was an honour to work with you and be a part of your life! Much love, memories and respect. x

Bill Lennox          posted 27 Feb 2008, 10:44 AM

I met Dorothy in 1988 when I was teaching a creative writing night class in Auckland. I was also writing theatre reviews for the Listener at the time, so our relationship was initially a bit … careful. But over the year I and the writing group came to know Dorothy well. She was emerging from a difficult period personally and did not want to be seen as a ‘public’ figure. We had wonderful chats about theatre, writing and just life and people really. It was this mix of perspectives that made Dorothy such an excellent actress, a wonderfully alert and interesting person and also a very good writer. At the end of the year, we published a little volume of prose and poetry (called Eruptions in a Glasshouse to convey the sort of experiences many in the group were in the midst of). Dorothy contributed a short story and a poem. The short story was about a day in the life of two old ladies having their regular day out in Wellington – they were involved in a bank robbery during which the robber was “so rude – in broad daylight too”, so they decided to see The Sound of Music rather than Crocodile Dundee because they’d had “enough excitement for one day”.  The poem was a sort of companion piece and it reflected her remarkably unsentimental sensitivity:

Foodies

They spilled over wrought-iron seats,

Buttocks straining at seams.

Lips pursed, fingers crooked,

Daintily demolishing petit gateaux.

It was worth the discomfort,

The salesgirls’ sniggers,

The loss of something barely remembered.

Connoisseurs of comfort and justification,

Out for their daily fix.