David Halliwell

Halliwell attended Huddersfield College of Art (1953–59) as an art student, but was expelled for a time from the institution, and later switched to acting at RADA. It was there that Halliwell first met Mike Leigh. According to Leigh, the other students "were mostly posh kids and it was terribly old-fashioned and twee, not like it is now, but there was a scruff element. John Hurt was there, David Warner was there. Me, Halliwell, Ken Campbell and a few other renegades."{{cite news|last=Trueman|first=Matt|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jul/07/mike-leigh-on-playwright-david-halliwell-little-malcolm|title=Mike Leigh on David Halliwell: 'He's one of the great writers who never happened'|work=The Guardian|date=7 July 2015|accessdate=7 July 2015}}

In the early 1960s he worked as an actor in rep and was a stage manager at the Nottingham Playhouse for a time.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article743307.ece Obituary: David Halliwell]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, The Times, 21 March 2006

{{Main|Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs}}

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 this 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. "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." The play won Halliwell the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award in 1967.Patrick Newley [http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/feature.php/12264/david-halliwell Obituary: David Halliwell"], The Stage, 12 April 2006

Malcolm's premier production at the Unity Theatre in 1965 was directed by Mike Leigh with Halliwell himself in the central role of Malcolm.Michael Billington & Mike Leigh [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/22/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries Obituary: David Halliwell], The Guardian, 22 March 2006 Lasting six hours in this version, the production's run was short. Taken up by producer Michael Codron and reduced to a more manageable length, John Hurt now featured as the character in a West End production. On Broadway, the play was retitled Hail Scrawdyke! and starred Victor Henry Both were short runs. A feature film version followed, Little Malcolm (1974), again with Hurt in the lead. A successful revival in 1998 starred Ewan McGregor.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/259099.stm "McGregor play opens in West End"], BBC News, 22 January 1999

In 1968 Halliwell jointly set up a company named Quipu (an Inca communication tool) 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". Quipu, "the first lunchtime theatre club in London",John Elsom Post-war British Theatre, London: Routledtge, 1976, p.158 allowed the tryout of short plays. It was a form of "devised theatre" which Mike Leigh, recalling Halliwell in 2015, thought his friend's personality was incompatible: "His relationship with the actors wasn’t about growing and enabling, but about dictating, so the plays were always somewhat inorganic. The writer was there, though. He had great ideas – perceptive to the highest degree and witty, too."

Halliwell received the 1977 John Whiting Award for his play Prejudice. The award was presented to him in December 1978 by Harold Pinter.{{cite news |title=Play Prizes |work=Birmingham Daily Post |date=8 December 1978}}{{cite news |last1=McCall |first1=Anthony |title=Major Arts Lobby Launched |work=The Stage |date=29 December 1978}}

In 1967, A Who's Who of Flapland starring Alfred Marks and Wilfred Pickles was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme, beginning Halliwell's long association with radio plays. It was adapted for theatre two years later and presented with two other short plays.{{cite book |last1=Halliwell |first1=David |title=A Who's Who of Flapland and other plays |date=1971 |publisher=Faber and Faber Limited |location=London |page=10}}{{cite news |last1=Small |first1=Christopher |title=Triple bill at Traverse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeg9AAAAIBAJ&dq=%22flapland%22+david+halliwell%22&pg=PA9&article_id=4607,3465405 |access-date=13 August 2024 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=18 May 1970}}

Halliwell's other stage plays include K.D. Dufford (1969).Dan Rebellato "Halliwell, David [William]", in Colin Chambers The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, London: Continuum, 2002 [2005], p.338

Halliwell researched the professional relationship of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, both involved in the discovery of DNA, in the 1980s,[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/history/archives/dna/audio/?m=print DNA] King's College, London but his work was not completed, although the recordings of people he interviewed have been preserved.

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.

In 1999, Halliwell directed the premiere of his play One Sez This Then the Other Sez That at the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actors Centre in London. It starred Jill Howson and Philip Relph.{{cite news |title=Production News: One Sez This Then the Other Sez That |work=The Stage |date=1 April 1999}}

• Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1965)
• A Who's Who of Flapland (1967)
• The Experiment (1967) co-devised with David Calderisi{{cite news |title='The Experiment' |work=The Stage |date=12 January 1967}}
• A Discussion (1969)
• Muck from Three Angles (1970)
• K. D. Dufford Hears K. D. Dufford Ask K. D. Dufford How K. D. Dufford’ll Make K. D. Dufford
• Bleats from a Brighouse Pleasureground (1972)
• Janitress Thrilled by Prehensile Penis (1972){{cite news |last1=M.A.M. |title=Halliwell duo |work=The Stage |date=23 November 1972}}
• Prejudice (1977) later retitled Creatures of Another Kind
• A Rite Kwik Metal Ta-Ta (1979)
• The House (1979)
• Was it Her?
• Spongehenge (1982){{cite web |title=Saturday Night Theatre: Spongehenge |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/101596bc1c944cad9dffe0c7579654d0 |website=BBC Genome Project |access-date=13 August 2024}}
• Grandad's Place
• Shares of the Pudding
• Do It Yourself
• Bedsprings (1989){{cite web |title=Drama Now: Bedsprings |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/78d802f8474646a28da7f2c6b6ab86a5 |website=BBC Genome Project |access-date=13 August 2024}}
• Parts
• There's a Car Park in Witherton (1992){{cite web |title=Thirty Minute Theatre: There's a Car Park in Witherton |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/2c8da6622f994eb58482e4a5d951fc36 |website=BBC Genome Project |access-date=13 August 2024}}
• Crossed Lines
• Bird (1995){{cite web |title=Studio Three: Bird |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b92c8bb0bd104fc89fe644d822024976 |website=BBC Genome Project |access-date=13 August 2024}}
• One Sez This Then the Other Sez That (1999){{cite news |last1=Allen |first1=Paul |title=A Rite Kwik Metal Ta-Ta |work=The Stage |date=25 January 1979}}{{cite book |last1=Halliwell |first1=David |title=The house |date=1979 |publisher=Eyre Methuen |location=London |isbn=9780413470300}}{{cite web |last1=Deacon |first1=Nigel |title=David Halliwell Radio Plays |url=https://www.suttonelms.org.uk/DHALL.HTML |website=Sutton Elms |access-date=11 August 2024}}{{cite news |title=David Halliwell Obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/david-halliwell-6nrznrfcb6j |access-date=11 August 2024 |work=The Sunday Times |date=21 March 2006}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0356668|David Halliwell}}
• [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsH/halliwell-david.php David Halliwell] at the Doollee.com – The Playwrights website
• [http://www.filmreference.com/film/28/David-Halliwell.html "David Halliwell Biography (1936–[2006])"], Film Reference website
• [http://archives.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/dispatcher.aspx?action=search&database=ChoiceArchive&search=priref=110048983 David Halliwell correspondence] at Senate House Library, University of London

{{John Whiting Award}}

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Category:1936 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:British male dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century British male writers