David Allen was born in Birmingham, England in 1936 and has an Honours degree in English. He trained at Manchester School of Theatre and between 1966 and 1970 taught in Uganda, East Africa where he founded Theatre Limited with African actor and playwright Robert Serumaga. In 1972 he migrated to Australia to lecture in drama and co-founded Adelaide’s Troupe Theatre Company for whom he wrote and directed until 1979 when he moved to Sydney and became a full-time writer.
Over the last thirty years he has written extensively for the stage and television and also worked in film and radio. His plays have been produced all over Australia and in London, New York, Toronto, New Zealand, Germany, Holland and Ireland. They include CHEAPSIDE, GONE WITH HARDY, POMMIES, MODEST EXPECTATIONS, UPSIDE DOWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD, JACK DRUM’S ENTERTAINMENT, DIRTY BOOKS(with Barry Oakley) and BURBAGE. Television credits range from NEIGHBOURS, FLYING DOCTORS and RAFFERTY’S RULES to SNOWY, GP, BUTTERFLY ISLAND and BLUE HEELERS.
David has been a book and theatre reviewer for The Australian, taught at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and held writer-in-residence positions in Hobart, Darwin and at Newcastle University. He has won two Writers Guild ‘Awgies’ and the Victorian Premier’s prize for drama for CHEAPSIDE. In 2006 he was awarded lifetime membership of the Australian Writers Guild.
In 2011 his first novel KABAKA LEAR was published on-line. He is currently working on a play about Ben Jonson and another novel, IRON COVE.
