David Halliwell

David William Halliwell (31 July 1936, Brighouse, Yorkshire – c.16 March 2006, Charlbury, Oxfordshire^[1]) was a British dramatist.

Halliwell was an art student at Huddersfield College of Art (1953-59) who later studied acting at RADA and was expelled for a time from the former institution. In the earl 1960s he worked as an actor in rep and was a stage manager at the Nottingham Playhouse for a time.^[2]

His experiences at the Huddersfield College were the basis for his earliest produced and best remembered play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. In the play Malcolm Scrawdyke, a Hitlerite figure plots revenge against authority for his college expulsion by forming the Party of Dynamic Erection with his three acolytes.^[1] "The Nazis made a big impression on people of my age", Halliwell recalled. "They almost destroyed Europe. But as well as being pretty threatening they were also seen as a laughing stock even during the war."^[2] The play won Halliwell the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award in 1967.^[3]

Malcolm's premier production at the Unity Theatre in 1965 was directed by Mike Leigh with Halliwell himself in the central role of Malcolm.^[4] John Hurt featured as the character in a slightly later West End production and the feature film version (Little Malcolm, 1974). A successful revival in 1999 starred Ewan McGregor.^[5]

In 1968 Halliwell jointly set up a company name Quipu which performed at various London theatres until 1973. Its stated aim reflected the radical politics of the time: "a new kind of organisation in which the means of production are owned, controlled and developed by the artists whose work is being produced".^[4] Quipu, "the first lunchtime theatre club in London",^[6] allowed the tryout of short plays. His later stage plays include Who's Who of Flapland (1967) and K.D. Dufford (1969).^[7]

Halliwell researched the professional relationship of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, both involved in the discovery of DNA, in the 1980s,^[8] but his work was not completed, although the recordings of people he interviewed have been preserved.^[8]

He contributed several television scripts to several of the BBC's anthology series, including Play for Today, and wrote (an unproduced serial) for Doctor Who.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Alan Strachan & Janet Street Porter Obituary: David Halliwell, The Independent, 5 April 2006
2. ^ ^{a b} Obituary: David Halliwell, The Times, 21 March 2006
3. ^ Patrick Newley Obituary: David Halliwell", The Stage, 12 April 2006
4. ^ ^{a b} Michael Billington & Mike Leigh Obituary: David Halliwell, The Guardian, 22 March 2006
5. ^ "McGregor play opens in West End", BBC News, 22 January 1999
6. ^ John Elsom Post-war British Theatre, London: Routledtge, 1976, p.158
7. ^ Dan Rebellato "Halliwell, David [William]", in Colin Chambers The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, London: Continuum, 2002 [2005], p.338
8. ^ ^{a b} DNA King's College, London

External links

• David Halliwell at the Internet Movie Database
• David Halliwell at the Doollee.com - The Playwrights website
• "David Halliwell Biography (1936-[2006])", Film Reference website

Persondata
Name	Halliwell, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1936
Place of birth
Date of death	2006
Place of death