Violet Targuse was an early female playwright in New Zealand. She has been described as "probably New Zealand's most successful and least acclaimed one-act playwright," and "the most successful writer in the early years" of the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League. Active during the 1930s when her plays were widely performed by Women's Institute drama groups, they focused on women, especially the experiences and concerns of rural women in New Zealand. Set in locations such as a freezing works, a sheep station, a shack on a railway siding, and a coastal lighthouse, her plays were seen as essentially New Zealand in setting, character, and expression..

Timaru is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located 157 km (98 mi) southwest of Christchurch and about 196 km (122 mi) northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to 28,900 people, and is the largest urban area in South Canterbury, and the third-largest in the Canterbury Region overall, after Christchurch and Rolleston. The town is the seat of the Timaru District, which includes the surrounding rural area and the towns of Geraldine, Pleasant Point and Temuka, which combined have a total population of 48,900.