Pages

▼

Monday, February 10, 2020

DAVID WILLIAMSON. The Trump Card of the Right


       Karel Čapek as travel writer 

       Karel Čapek is best-known for his dramas (notably R.U.R., in which he coined the word 'robot') and fiction (e.g. The Absolute at Large), but he was also a travel-writer, and Mirna Šolić recently published a study of these writing, In Search of a Shared Expression: Karel Čapek’s travel writing and imaginative geography of Europe; see for example, the Charles University press release. 
       At Radio Praha Ian Willoughby now has an interesting Q & A about this with Šolić. 

... which do you prefer? Sunny Sydney or Marvellous Melbourne? 
The truth is I've lived longer in Melbourne than Sydney and left both of these great cities for the pleasures of the Sunshine Coast many years ago. Melbourne has changed enormously since I left in 1979. Mostly for the better. The Southbank precinct is a great addition to the Melbourne I left and the busy inner city life of Melbourne, sustained by cafes, bars and restaurants is something Sydney has never been able to match. Nor has Sydney quite matched the fervour of theatrical activity in many many venues around Melbourne. But Sydney has its charms. It's semi tropical abundance and that sparkling harbour can still cause one's spirits to soar. In short, they're both great and interesting cities and Kristin and I could live happily in either of them if we didn't so much enjoy the tranquillity and peace of living on a beautiful coastline in Queensland.

 

DAVID WILLIAMSON. The Trump Card of the Right.

 
The political parties of the Left often still hold to the Enlightenment belief that we are rational creatures – that the person who has the best evidence based argument will win the debate. Sadly, as long as they do they’ll keep losing. Continue reading →

Like Shakespeare’s characters we still crave recognition and love, we still are angered by humiliation and rejection and seek revenge, we still overreact to perceived threat, and we are still capable of great compassion when we see others persecuted, and still feel anger at injustice. And often we use devious and unconscionable methods to attain those emotional ends. In forgetting that literature is the greatest repository of wisdom about our human nature, Foucault tried, all too successfully in many pockets of academia, to throw the baby out with the bathwater. . .

  

David Williamson Heather Bloom 22 January 2020 One of Australia’s most beloved playwrights, David Williamson continues his 50-year run of success with a return to his 1987 play, Emerald City. Directed by Sam Strong, Emerald City will open Queensland Theatre’s much-anticipated 50th Anniversary Season from Saturday 8th February to Saturday 29th February 2020 in the Playhouse, QPAC. Heather Bloom asked Australia’s most produced playwright about what drives him and how to maintain artistic integrity in a capitalist society.

Australian Stage: Profile of David Williamson

BWW REVIEW: FAMILY VALUES Sees The Woke Women Of ...

 

The party's over: Williamson's last word

David Williamson is still passionate about many things, but after 50 years dissecting Australia's middle-class foibles the legendary playwright is retiring and swears he will stay silent in his dotage.

If you’re ever asked to lunch with David Williamson and write about it, you are unlikely to fall short on the word count. He has a lot to say. Indeed, the transcription of our lunch – which was only one course and coffee – runs to 16,000 words, or about 10 times the length of this article. My questions can’t be blamed. They were short.

In Williamson’s defence, should any defence of passionate and often eloquent conversation be needed, there was a great deal to cover.
The 2-metre tall Melbourne playwright has worked in the theatre for 50 years, managed to have every one of the 55 plays he has written performed, and has squeezed in a great deal more.
That includes the screenplay for Gallipoli, the Peter Weir-directed film released in 1981 that is widely cited as an inspiration for 1917, which on Monday took out three technical category awards from 10 Academy Award nominations.
“Yes, bloody Sam Mendes pinched our last scene and turned it into a whole film,” Williamson says with a laugh.
But now the curtain’s coming down, and this self-proclaimed leftie reflects on his career and much else as we sit under the outrageously high art deco ceiling of Sydney’s Rockpool Bar & Grill. He chose the restaurant, one of the city’s dearest. I’ll have to ask him about that.
Williamson’s final play, Crunch Time, opened at the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli on Friday, February 14. (It runs until April 9.) He insists that’s it. Come on, I say. You’ve written a play a year, tapping into the current issues of every one of those years. When something next infuriates you, you won’t be able to keep your typing fingers still.
at