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David Cregan obituary David Cregan obituary
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Though the playwright David Cregan, who has died aged 83, was never a name on Shaftesbury Avenue, he was a skilled and original dramatist who forsook the teaching profession to join the “second wave” of new writers at the Royal Court theatre in the mid-1960s. He later formed an association with the Orange Tree in Richmond upon Thames, south-west London, where the director Sam Walters produced 15 of his plays (eight of them premieres) over 30 years from 1975 to 2005.Though the playwright David Cregan, who has died aged 83, was never a name on Shaftesbury Avenue, he was a skilled and original dramatist who forsook the teaching profession to join the “second wave” of new writers at the Royal Court theatre in the mid-1960s. He later formed an association with the Orange Tree in Richmond upon Thames, south-west London, where the director Sam Walters produced 15 of his plays (eight of them premieres) over 30 years from 1975 to 2005.
Fair-haired, amusing and affable, with a ready, open smile, Cregan said he was a socialist because “there is no other reasonable thing to be”. His plays reverberated with such 20th-century questions as the status of the individual in a community, the likelihood of material wealth leading to spiritual complacency, and the potential for improvement in the basic nature of man.Fair-haired, amusing and affable, with a ready, open smile, Cregan said he was a socialist because “there is no other reasonable thing to be”. His plays reverberated with such 20th-century questions as the status of the individual in a community, the likelihood of material wealth leading to spiritual complacency, and the potential for improvement in the basic nature of man.
This political and moral seriousness went hand in hand, not always easily, with a talent for comedy and unpredictable, incisive dialogue. His last stage play, Summer Again (2004), was a country house comedy involving a fight over a plot of adjacent land while war loomed in Iraq, and only made real sense when you thought of it as a Yorkshire version of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House. Similarly, one of his best Royal Court plays, Three Men for Colverton (1966), with a great cast including Jack Shepherd, Sylvia Coleridge, Malcolm Tierney and Julian Curry, was an oddball, richly enjoyable small-town epic that bombed at the box office but gave off its own particular, and peculiar, flavour. This political and moral seriousness went hand in hand, not always easily, with a talent for comedy and unpredictable, incisive dialogue. His last stage play, Summer Again (2004), was a country house comedy involving a fight over a plot of adjacent land while war loomed in Iraq, and made real sense only when you thought of it as a Yorkshire version of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House. Similarly, one of his best Royal Court plays, Three Men for Colverton (1966), with a great cast including Jack Shepherd, Sylvia Coleridge, Malcolm Tierney and Julian Curry, was an oddball, richly enjoyable small-town epic that bombed at the box office but gave off its own particular, and peculiar, flavour.
Cregan had joined the Royal Court studio in 1964, and in 1966, with the aid of an Arts Council grant, he bought a camper van in which he trundled off to write each day in the Hertfordshire public woodland. And every Wednesday, for two years, he attended the writers’ group formed at the Court by its founding director, George Devine, trying out new stuff alongside the likes of Edward Bond, Anne Jellicoe, Arnold Wesker and Wole Soyinka.Cregan had joined the Royal Court studio in 1964, and in 1966, with the aid of an Arts Council grant, he bought a camper van in which he trundled off to write each day in the Hertfordshire public woodland. And every Wednesday, for two years, he attended the writers’ group formed at the Court by its founding director, George Devine, trying out new stuff alongside the likes of Edward Bond, Anne Jellicoe, Arnold Wesker and Wole Soyinka.
His first play, Miniatures (1965), about the rough and tumble of life in a comprehensive school from the teachers’ perspective, was given a Sunday night performance (“without decor”) with a “gala” cast including Jane Birkin, Lindsay Anderson as a disciplinarian deputy campaigning for the wearing of gowns, Devine himself as the headmaster and Nicol Williamson as a deranged music master. In 1969, Michael Bogdanov’s production of A Comedy of the Changing Years opened the Theatre Upstairs in the Court’s attic; the cast included Jonathan Lynn, co-creator of the BBC’s Yes Minister. His first play, Miniatures (1965), about the rough and tumble of life in a comprehensive school from the teachers’ perspective, was given a Sunday night performance (“without decor”) with a “gala” cast including Jane Birkin, Lindsay Anderson as a disciplinarian deputy campaigning for the wearing of gowns, Devine himself as the headteacher and Nicol Williamson as a deranged music teacher. In 1969, Michael Bogdanov’s production of A Comedy of the Changing Years opened the Theatre Upstairs in the Court’s attic; the cast included Jonathan Lynn, co‑creator of the BBC’s Yes Minister.
David was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, the youngest of four sons of James, a first world war veteran and bank clerk who later bought a small shirt factory in Manchester, and his wife, Gertrude, daughter of a Scottish doctor. He wrote his first play, Jason and the Golden Fleece (three minutes long), at prep school, aged 10, before progressing to the Leys school in Cambridge. Following two years of national service in the RAF (1952-54), he attended Clare College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Footlights revue society. Cregan was born in Buxton,Derbyshire, the youngest of four sons of James, a first world war veteran and bank clerk who later bought a small shirt factory in Manchester, and his wife, Gertrude, daughter of a Scottish doctor. He wrote his first play, Jason and the Golden Fleece (three minutes long), at prep school, aged 10, before progressing to the Leys school in Cambridge. After two years of national service in the RAF (1952-54), he attended Clare College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Footlights revue society.
Settling down as a teacher of English and drama, he worked for two years in a private school in Palm Beach, Florida, before teaching at Burnage grammar school for boys, Manchester, in 1957. He also had short spells as a clerk with the Automobile Association and as a mouse-poison salesman, both of which experiences worked their way into his plays. His longest spell as a teacher – from 1958 to 1966 – was at Hatfield school in Hertfordshire, where he settled with his wife, Ailsa Wynne Willson, whom he married in 1960. Settling down as a teacher of English and drama, he worked for two years in a private school in Palm Beach, Florida, before teaching at Burnage grammar school for boys, Manchester, in 1957. He also had short spells as a clerk at the Automobile Association and as a mouse-poison salesman – experiences that worked their way into his plays. His longest spell as a teacher – from 1958 to 1966 – was at Hatfield school in Hertfordshire, where he settled with his wife, Ailsa Wynne Willson, whom he married in 1960.
His other titles at the Royal Court were The Dancers and Transcending (both 1966), and The Houses by the Green (1968), an inventive commedia dell’arte for four characters, each playing two roles, about possession, sex and marriage. His Orange Tree portfolio included Tina (1975), a blistering two-hander for a sympathetic teacher (played by Stephanie Cole) and an abused, underprivileged pupil (Sharman Macdonald, Keira Knightley’s mother, who was an actor before becoming a playwright herself); Nice Dorothy (1993), a comedy of generations in which a caring old spinster falls in love with a 25-year-old toy boy (“I adore your age,” he said. “It’s like being in bed with Teddy”); and Whispers Along the Patio (2001), a conversation piece of romantic rivalry over a newly arrived Macedonian girl in Surrey. His other titles at the Royal Court were The Dancers and Transcending (both 1966), and The Houses by the Green (1968), an inventive commedia dell’arte for four characters, each playing two roles, about possession, sex and marriage. His Orange Tree portfolio included Tina (1975), a blistering two-hander for a sympathetic teacher (played by Stephanie Cole) and an abused, underprivileged pupil (Sharman Macdonald, Keira Knightley’s mother, who was an actor before becoming a playwright herself); Nice Dorothy (1993), a comedy of generations in which an older woman falls in love with a 25-year-old man (“I adore your age,” he said. “It’s like being in bed with Teddy”); and Whispers Along the Patio (2001), a conversation piece of romantic rivalry over a newly arrived Macedonian girl in Surrey.
Cregan never stopped writing, even in later years when he was blighted by Parkinson’s disease. “I’m pregnant again,” he’d declare, as he set to work. He wrote several community plays, six pantomimes for the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 10 television plays or series and 15 radio plays. He is survived by Ailsa, their four children – Tim, Alexis, Ben and Rebecca – and six grandchildren. Cregan never stopped writing, even in later years when he was blighted by Parkinson’s disease. “I’m pregnant again,” he’d declare, as he set to work. He wrote several community plays, six pantomimes for the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 10 television plays or series and 15 radio plays.
He is survived by Ailsa, and their four children – Tim, Alexis, Ben and Rebecca – and six grandchildren.
• David Appleton Quartus Cregan, playwright, born 30 September 1931; died 7 September 2015• David Appleton Quartus Cregan, playwright, born 30 September 1931; died 7 September 2015