after recovering in london from a breakdown in 1919 she returned to new zealand where she managed her own touring theatre company; one of the actors was the writer ngaio marsh. in 1921 her theatre company, the rosemary rees english comedy company, performed "the mollusc" by hubert henry davies in wellington, christchurch and dunedin, and other small towns. it also performed rees's own plays "'will you walk into my parlour"' and the comedy "'the amateur adventuress' ." the company foundered after three to five months because rees was unable to pay salaries and she moved to australia to find work in the theatre there, though she returned to new zealand to tour with the j.c. williamson company in 1922.