By Margaret Maccoll
Playwright David Williamson discovered drama in high school from the time his English teacher Alan McCloud acted it out in front of the class and introduced them to the power of language.
But he was also good at maths, and after school followed an expected career path to university to study engineering.
With no interest in the job, he swapped to psychology where he revelled in the study of people, their quest for love, desire, power, recognition and the use of language to persuade or deceive.
His study of peoples’ behavior became what he “was obsessed with in early stage writing”.
It was a full house at Noosa U3A on Friday where David Williamson was guest speaker to discuss his work of “putting words into people’s mouths”.
David is about to release his 53rd play to a world stage but his first, The Coming of Stork, about a student share house, was written for a little theatre in Carlton where director Betty Burstall was “looking for new writing”.
Not long after he wrote The Removalists, which has fond memories for David as it was where he met his wife Kristin.
“I saw this vision of loveliness walking toward me,” he said.
From then, writing plays became his lifelong career and one his parents were dubious about.
He said his mother was always having to explain about the son who wrote plays with swear words, but he was encouraged by his father’s warning.
“Don’t live the life I’ve had. I’ve worked for 40 years in a bank and hated every day, and I’ve done it for you kids.”
David said he’d led a terrific life and while his plays had brought financial success he didn’t do it for the money.
“It’s the first premier night when the audience see it. It’s highly tense and highly exciting – you know what you’ve got.
“If it holds their interest, if it relates to their lives, it’s the biggest kick,” he said.
David’s play Sorting out Rachel will premiere in Sydney before coming to Noosa in March next year as a forerunner to the Noosa Alive (formerly Noosa Long Weekend) festival of which David is a co-founder.
