Devonport writer and playwright Geoff Chapple’s new play The Lost Poet was presented in a semi-staged reading at The Vic Theatre in Devonport as part of New Zealand Theatre Month. Starring Stuart Devenie (who performed and toured Geoff’s one-man play ‘Hatch’ to great acclaim some years ago) and Jodie Hillock, the play centred on an irritating caretaker and  fictional writer who is researching the explosive 1960s and who discovers a real, but largely unknown, Kiwi poet who was an influential player in the beat scene in London in the ’60s. The well-attended event was part of a Sunday series of play readings at The Vic during September's inaugural New Zealand Theatre Month, which was instigated here on the Shore by locally-based international playwright Roger Hall. New plays by local writers Tom Scott and Margot McRae were also heard during the series.