David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays. David Williamson was born in Melbourne and brought up in Bairnsdale, Victoria. He initially studied mechanical engineering at the University of Melbourne from 1960. His early forays into the theatre were as an actor and writer of skits for the Engineers' Revue at Melbourne University's Union Theatre at lunchtime during the early 1960s. After a stint as a lecturer for Swinburne University, he turned to writing plays in 1967. Williamson rose to prominence in the early 1970s,... with works such as Don's Party , a comic drama set during the 1969 federal election; and The Removalists . He also collaborated on the screenplays for Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously . Williamson's work as a playwright focuses on themes of politics, loyalty and family in contemporary urban Australia, particularly in two of its major cities, Melbourne and Sydney. Major works include The Club, The Department, Travelling North, The Perfectionist, Emerald City, Money and Friends and Brilliant Lies.
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