Love, blood and betrayal

Award winning writer Greg McGee, best known for his play Foreskin’s Lament, came to Going West in 2015 to talk on writing, rugby, toxic masculinity, female pseudonyms, life in Italy and his novel The Antipodeans - an intergenerational tale of love, blood and betrayal. 

For this conversation, he is joined by well-known and well-read journalist David Larsen.

McGee, an almost All Black, is known for works that have challenged the social norms of masculine behaviours in New Zealand, most notably his hugely  popular play Foreskin’s Lament. First performed in 1981, his dark drama set in a rugby club changing room stripped New Zealand masculinity naked and began the demise of the once popular slur "Whaddarya?”

McGee went on to be a successful screenwriter, writing based-on-true story dramatisations and mini-series based on the Erebus disaster and the infamous Lange Government, as well as contributing to several popular New Zealand TV shows including Marlin Bay, Street Legal, and Orange Roughies. He also penned the screenplay for Old Scores, a rugby-based feature film.

As a novelist, McGee first wrote under the pseudonym Alix Bosco, winning the prestigious Ngaio Marsh Award for his debut, CUT & RUN. He also wrote All Blacks captain Richie McCaw's 2012 biography, one of the bestselling New Zealand books of the last decade