Influence of David Williamson
August 13th 2010 03:10
Original Creative Writing:
David Williamson
They say critics loath him, I do not agree, I have enjoyed his plays quite a lot. I have not always enjoyed them, but most of the time it is more the production of the play he has written that I am not enjoying, rather than the script as such. Even after taking a break dramatist David Williamson is still in the news.
No actor could play Abbott: Williamson
FROM: Sydney Morning Herald
Playwright David Williamson says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would be a difficult character to cast in a play.
And he described the election campaign as "dispiriting".
"Who would you get to play Tony except Tony?" Williamson told AAP on Wednesday.
"He has certainly got the air of the pugilist about him, he cannot stop swinging punches which, whether they are wild punches or whether they are effectively punched doesn't matter, he just comes out swinging arms and that attracts some people.
"They think `here's a good guy whacking into everything' but I think it also has the opposite effect on some others."
Williamson, whose 1971 play Don's Party was set during the 1969 federal election, said the major political parties had been having problems coming up with progressive social policies.
"It is a very dispiriting election from that point of view," he said.
He said the focus of both major parties on asylum seekers was "mad hysteria" which pandered to conservative blue collar workers in marginal seats.
"People are getting fed up with the false adversarial hysteria when, in fact, both major parties agree on a whole range of major things."
Voters had lost faith in politicians in the past decades, he said.
"A lot of people felt hope about politics 40 years ago. (They thought) that real and substantial change (that) would make Australia a better country was still possible," he said.
"I think people are fairly disgusted with both main parties and are registering a strong protest vote for the Greens."
2010 AAP
And FROM The Age
Critics loathe him, but David Williamson is laughing all the way from the box office, writes Raymond Gill.
DAVID Williamson's 33rd play Let the Sunshine opens at the Melbourne Theatre Company on Saturday. It's the 68-year-old playwright's second play since he announced his premature retirement in 2005 due to a heart arrhythmia condition which has been treated successfully by new drugs.
His previous play, Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot, was the MTC's second-most popular show in its 2008 season, with more than 25,000 ticket buyers.
The MTC's record with Williamson works shows he is one of their biggest sellers, with an average of 18,000 subscriber tickets sold for his plays and a further average of 6000 single tickets sold for a typical six-week season. In Sydney, his plays earned the Sydney Theatre Company more than $18 million at the box office when they were performed almost annually from 1982 to 2005.
No actor could play Abbott: Williamson
FROM: Sydney Morning Herald
Playwright David Williamson says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would be a difficult character to cast in a play.
And he described the election campaign as "dispiriting".
"Who would you get to play Tony except Tony?" Williamson told AAP on Wednesday.
"He has certainly got the air of the pugilist about him, he cannot stop swinging punches which, whether they are wild punches or whether they are effectively punched doesn't matter, he just comes out swinging arms and that attracts some people.
"They think `here's a good guy whacking into everything' but I think it also has the opposite effect on some others."
Williamson, whose 1971 play Don's Party was set during the 1969 federal election, said the major political parties had been having problems coming up with progressive social policies.
"It is a very dispiriting election from that point of view," he said.
He said the focus of both major parties on asylum seekers was "mad hysteria" which pandered to conservative blue collar workers in marginal seats.
"People are getting fed up with the false adversarial hysteria when, in fact, both major parties agree on a whole range of major things."
Voters had lost faith in politicians in the past decades, he said.
"A lot of people felt hope about politics 40 years ago. (They thought) that real and substantial change (that) would make Australia a better country was still possible," he said.
"I think people are fairly disgusted with both main parties and are registering a strong protest vote for the Greens."
2010 AAP
Critics loathe him, but David Williamson is laughing all the way from the box office, writes Raymond Gill.
DAVID Williamson's 33rd play Let the Sunshine opens at the Melbourne Theatre Company on Saturday. It's the 68-year-old playwright's second play since he announced his premature retirement in 2005 due to a heart arrhythmia condition which has been treated successfully by new drugs.
His previous play, Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot, was the MTC's second-most popular show in its 2008 season, with more than 25,000 ticket buyers.
The MTC's record with Williamson works shows he is one of their biggest sellers, with an average of 18,000 subscriber tickets sold for his plays and a further average of 6000 single tickets sold for a typical six-week season. In Sydney, his plays earned the Sydney Theatre Company more than $18 million at the box office when they were performed almost annually from 1982 to 2005.
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David Jobling
