David Campton

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David Campton (June 5, 1924–September 9, 2006) was a prolific British dramatist who wrote plays for the stage, radio, and cinema for thirty-five years. "He was one of the first British dramatists to write in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd".^[1]

In performance reviews of productions of Campton's play The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace and The Birthday Party, by Harold Pinter, published in the short-lived British drama magazine Encore, drama critic Irving Wardle borrowed the term "comedy of menace" from the subtitle of Campton's play, popularizing the term "comedies of menace".^[2]

Campton addressed the matter of critics' "pigeonholing" his work:

"I dislike pigeonholes and object to being popped into one. However, one label that might fit is the title of an anthology of my plays: Laughter and Fear. This is not quite the same as comedy of menace, which has acquired a connotation of theatre of the absurd. It is in fact present in my lightest domestic comedy. It seems to me that the chaos affecting everyone today––political, technical, sociological, religious, etc., etc.,––is so all-pervading that it cannot be ignored, yet so shattering that it can only be approached through comedy. Tragedy demands firm foundations; today we are dancing among the ruins." (Qtd. in "David Campton, Playwright")

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Works
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Campton was born in Leicester, in 1924. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the RAF, and then, for another year, in the Fleet Air Arm. He worked as a clerk in the City of Leicester Department of Education until 1949 and then moved to the East Midlands Gas Board, where he worked until 1956.

[edit] Awards

First prize in a competition sponsored by the Tavistock Repertory Company.
British Arts Council bursary (1958)
British Theatre Association prizes (1975, 1978, 1985)

[edit] Works

Full-length plays

The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace (1958), which includes:
A Comedy of Menace
Then ...
Memento Mori
Getting and Spending (produced 1957)

One-act plays

After Midnight––Before Dawn (produced 1978)
The Cagebirds (produced 1971)
Can You Hear the Music? (produced 1988)
Cards, Cups and Crystal Balls (produced 1985)
Do-It-Yourself-Frankenstein Outfit (produced 1975)
Evergreens (produced)
Everybody's Friend (produced 1975)
Little Brother, Little Sister (produced 1970)
Memento Mori (produced 1957)
Mrs Meadowsweet (produced 1985)
Now and Then (produced 1970)
Our Branch in Brussels (produced 1986)
Out of the Frying Pan (produced 1970)
Parcel (broadcast 1968)
Permission to Cry
Relics (produced 1973)
Right Place (produced 1970)
Singing in the Wilderness (produced 1985)
A Smell of Burning (produced 1957)
Smile (produced 1990)
Then (produced 1980)
Us and Them (1972)
What Are You Doing Here?
Who Calls? (produced 1979)
Winter of 1917 (produced 1989)

Dramatic sketch

Resting Place (produced 1969, as part of the revue entitled Mixed Doubles)

Anthologies

Laughter and Fear. London: Blackie, 1969. ISBN 0216890772 (10). ISBN 978-0216890770 (13).

[edit] Notes

^ "David Campton, Playwright", Samuel French London.
^ Susan Hollis Merritt, Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter (1990; Durham and London: Duke UP, 1995) 5, 9, 225–26, and 310.