The Mighty Civic

The first time I saw the Civic Theatre as a child was when I became convinced there was excellence, excess and beauty in the world. I was so astonished I never forgot it and forever after I felt I owed something to the Civic as it supplied a standard of excellence. Few other buildings in Auckland, or even NZ for that matter, supplied this feeling of super abundance, of breaking through mere good taste, of setting out for an impossible Valhalla. The Civic broke the bank as far as I was concerned. I did not know where it was meant to be but even as a child I sensed it was providing a kind of aesthetic home. It was saying: there are places in the world unlike what your eyes can see. There are places you can only dream exist and this is one of them. All these impossibilities meant the Civic was a kind of spiritual homeland for me. And years later when the Civic Theatre's life was threatened with risk and neglect - that was why I stepped forward. I owed it to that incredible place which had provided such a standard of magic. I could not abandon it in its hour of need. - Peter Wells