Interview with David Williamson

Introductory music is played along with animated pictures. The Name of the program ‘Krew’ appears on screen. Sounds of applauding can be heard. The screen fades to a compere standing on stage. On stage there are two armchairs a coffee table with two glasses and a jug of water on top.

Compere: Thankyou very much. Welcome viewers to the Krew. Tonight we have a special guest David Williamson, one of Australia’s most successful playwrights. His play ‘The Club’ is best known for its representation of our sporting culture and we will be discussing the changes in football since ‘The Club’ was written and the relationships of characters in the play as a whole. Please welcome David Williamson.

Camera pans to David as he enters from the doorway. Close up as they shake their hands. Compere and David take their seats.

Compere: Welcome David, thank you for your time.

David Bowie & Band @ Area2 Festival

David May

David Berkowitz branded with Dr Pepper

After reading your play ‘The Club’ I realised the biggest issues were the buying of players, power, loyalty and money. Can you discuss how you came upon these ideas?David: In the mid 1970’s I kept seeing these headlines, ‘Coach Sacked’, ‘Player Walks Out’. It struck me why don’t people have a physical connection to their club anymore? What’s happening to sport? It’s a crossover between loyalty, loyalty to the club, and loyalty to the almighty dollar. I tried to catch football at this crossover point.

Compere: Yes yes, recently I was reading the papers and I came across an article addressing the Australian Rugby Union favouring other teams over others. The ARU was giving teams more money than others which gave them an upper hand, allowing them to buy better players. Tahu and Tuqiri were offered $1.1million per season. Their coach was trying to persuade them not to take the...