Playwright

David Burton is a playwright based in South East Queensland.

He was been commissioned by USQ Artsworx to write the play for 2010 Breez Finance Children's Festival after the acclaim of his 2009 play, Spirits in Bare Feet which premiered at last year's Festival.

David graduated with a Bachelor of Theatre Arts from USQ, and has since gone on to teach with the School of Creative Arts. He is also the Director of the Empire Youth Theatre.

David’s plays include Lazarus Won’t Get Out of Bed (acclaimed by Queensland Theatre Company and Australian Theatre for Young People, produced by AS Theatre), The Bachelor Prophecies (developed by Queensland Theatre Company), Smashed (Sunshine Beach State High School), and Ending Gorgeous (Canberra Youth Theatre). David is also the writer of April’s Fool (for Empire Theatre, premiering in June) and Furious Angels (for Metro Arts, Empire Theatre and USQ, premiering in November).

David has had a long interest in children’s theatre and is passionate about the themes surrounding Captain Pathos.

‘The idea stemmed,’ he begins, ‘from a young boy’s love for chaos. I wanted to get inside the head of boy and try and figure out why they love to blow stuff up.’

Martin’s love of destruction is evident throughout the play and his journey to transcend this desire is what gives the play its narrative arc, a deliberate ploy by the playwright.

‘The imaginary friends came pretty soon after,’ says David. ‘With something as potentially heavy and dark as Martin’s journey, I needed to counter-act that with something silly.’

David describes the friends as exceedingly fun to write. He used basic elements of comedy and clowning to bring them to life.

‘Some of the friends are direct homages to classic comedy characters that I grew up with; The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Lucille Ball, they’re all in there.’

David concludes by saying that he ‘hopes the audience leaves having had a great time, and are a bit kinder too each other, and hopefully feel less alone.’ He laughs and says he realises it’s a big aim, ‘but not a bad one to have.’