Steve Hill Mr Hill gets in touch with his inner carnivore
Jobs: Actor, Pie Consultant, Sausage Wrangler
Past and Current Roles:
Snug (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Friar Francis (Much Ado About Nothing)
Quotes:
“I’ll ‘ave another pint of that if I may?”
“”Like the pie? That’s good honest FAT in there…”
Factoids:
Is currently pitching the idea of a late night TV cookery show to TVNZ. Can’t understand why ‘Oo Called The Cook A C**T? is not getting more interest.
Biography
Heard the expression ‘A Meaty Role’? Well meet the man who sums it up. Waiheke’s ‘Mr Meat’ Steve Hill has been combining theatre and meat products for as long as he can remember.*
A founder member of The Cheadle Tripe & Cow Heels Players in his native Lancashire, Steve made his stage debut as a saveloy in the 1987 production of Terrance Rattigan’s ‘Flare Path’, (“Ee were that yummy, I ‘ad to go out t’ chip shop an’ ‘ave chips ‘an mushy peas straight after.” The Bury & Rochdale Evening Argus).
The following year he played the Melton Mowbray Pie in Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker’ (“By ‘eck ee were good in that! An’ them costumes an’ all! I said to our Doreen, I said, ‘Ee looked that real you could have et’ ‘im wi’ some Branston Pickle!” The Ripponden Weekly Advertiser (Incorporating the Todmorden Pigeon Fanciers Gazette.)
But it was Steve’s brilliant portrayal of a half eaten black pudding in William Congreve’s The Way of the World that brought his talent to the attention of Sir Bosworth Sneed, the London impresario and butcher. Sir Bosworth invited Steve to audition for the Smithfield Market Theatre’s production of Osborn’s The Entertainer in the small, but vital role of the Scotch Egg. (The actor Dinsdale Landen had been originally cast in the role but was accidentally eaten by an esurient lighting technician the previous week.)
Tragically, the play was a disaster. Much of the meat in the production was of inferior quality, and one critic noted that dog food had been substituted in several key scenes. Sir Bosworth was found to have ‘cooked the books’ in no uncertain manner and fled the country with a bag of pork chops that very night.
Disillusioned, Steve moved to New Zealand, where he had intended to devote his life to designing and building the world’s finest pork pie. However, he managed this on the first try, so was at a loose end when Rogues & Vagabonds cast him in their production of Much Ado About Nothing.
The rest, as they say, is history. Or possibly geography.
* Actually, we don’t really know what this means as Steve’s memory is not what it used to be. And it used to be crap.
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