Horrors! It's Riff Raff in drag

The proposed statue honours former Hamiltonian Richard O'Brien.

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3551184&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

25 February 2004
By ELIZABETH BINNING

Hamilton doesn't usually conjure up images of transvestites in fish-net stockings.

But that is the image that may soon be standing in the city's main street, if a proposal to erect a statue paying homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show is approved tonight.

Street theatre director Mark Servian came up with the idea after learning that the city played a big role in the creation of the 1970s musical-turned-cult movie.

Writer Richard O'Brien, who played Riff Raff in the movie, came up with many of his ideas for the script while working as a hairdresser in Hamilton and watching movies in the old Embassy Theatre.

"Even though he spent only his youth in Hamilton before going to Britain, he feels it is the place that he's from," said Mr Servian.

"He has described the Embassy as the birthplace of Rocky Horror. That's the place where the influence was planted in his brain that years later led to him being inspired."

Mr Servian, a former Hamiltonian, wants to see a bronze statue of Riff Raff erected next to the theatre site in Victoria St.

If Hamilton City Council accepts the $125,000 project as a piece of public art for the city at its meeting tonight, as expected, it will contribute $25,000, with the Perry Foundation paying the bulk of the cost.

Mr Servian said the statue would be built by award-winning Weta Productions.

Tracey Wood, arts manager for the Hamilton Community Arts Council, said the statue was a good idea.