David Holman obituary

My friend the playwright David Holman, who has died aged 79, was a major figure in the theatre in education movement. He wrote more than 60 plays for children and young people, making an impact on generations of young people worldwide.

David was born in north London to Betty (nee Lake), a school secretary, and Harold Holman, an insurance salesman. Accompanying his mother to museums and “the pictures” instilled a curiosity about the past and a lifelong enthusiasm for cinema. The family re-located to Eastbourne and, after Eastbourne grammar school, he became one of the first students at University of Sussex, where he studied English, graduating in 1963.

After teaching in Canada, and further studies at the London Film School, David joined the theatre-in-education team at Coventry Belgrade theatre, where I was an actor and where we met. I first saw his work in 1972 – his play Song in a Strange Land, performed in front of a class of 12-year-olds. It dramatised the prison letters of George Jackson, published in book form as Soledad Brother, and showed that David understood the emotional and political maturity of young people, who loved his work.

David’s writing success in Coventry led to work in Bolton, at the M6 theatre company in Rochdale, and in London, where he was extensively commissioned by the Stratford East theatre and by Theatre Centre, a theatre company that tours new plays for young audiences.

In 1974 he wrote the heartbreaking play Drink the Mercury, the first in his Rare Earth trilogy, inspired by mercury pollution in the sea at Minamata in Japan. He anticipated climate change concerns by decades. Whale (National Theatre) and Solomon and the Big Cat (Young Vic) both concerned environmental and social justice. An exchange between Theatre Centre and the young people’s wing of the Theatre Company of South Australia took him to Australia, where he then worked throughout the 80s, and where his plays entered the national curriculum.

Few playwrights inspire the formation of theatre companies solely to perform their work but that is what happened with the Japanese children’s theatre company, Rekitei, which has been presenting David’s plays from its base in Tokyo since 2009. Productions of his play Peacemaker, about the Berlin Wall, are put on frequently around the world.

David’s stories range across various geographical locations, but the message is always the same – use the power of your imagination to connect with those you may never meet but with whom you share a common humanity.

In 2000 he and his partner, the director Deborah Paige, relocated from London to Swanage, in Dorset, where David supported many local community activities and charities. David gave my family and me a lifetime’s friendship, wisdom and support.

He is survived by Deborah, his brother Keith, niece, Karen, nephew, Graham, and four great nieces and nephews.