Director, script developer and actor Karen Elliot and fellow actors Danny Still and Colin Spicer joined forces in three performances of the documentary show, staged at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.
The performances, on Saturday and yesterday, were part of the Southern Heritage Trust’s Powerhouse Festival, which focused on "celebrating Dunedin’s industrial legacy" and ended yesterday.
The show was supported by the trust and the museum and produced through the Talking House charitable trust.
Ms Elliot said the show had been developed from interviews with three people who had worked in the building. It revealed the "hidden history" and what it was like to work there. The 320m-long building, beside Bathgate Park, has heritage protection and is the only surviving ropewalk building of its kind in New Zealand, and perhaps in the southern hemisphere. The building was used for rope-making from the mid-1870s until a few years ago, and the initial focus was on manufacturing long, heavy ropes for use on sailing ships in the 19th century.
This form of documentary theatre was "a great way to bring history to life," Ms Elliot said. Two further shows will be staged at Toitu, at 11am and 2pm next Sunday. In the longer term, the heritage trust hopes to preserve the building as a "living" museum.
