David Barnett - producer

David Barnett (19**-19**) was a theatre and radio show producer. Not to be confused with the photographer.

Biography

David Barnett was born in Sydney, Australia, and educated in Glasgow. He started his stage career in 1938 when he was introduced to the Perth Repertory Company by the late Lesley Banks. At the age of 16 he played Peter in Romeo and Juliet with Alec Guinness and Pamela Stanley, and from there appeared with many great names in the theatre such as Eileen Herlie, Jenny Laird, Kathleen Lacey, Austen Trevor, and others. During the war, he was in War Entertainments, and in the Rhine Army H.Q., Germany, he produced eight plays for the Forces. He returned to the stage in London after demobilisation.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

In 1947 he came to South Africa and produced plays in every main city in South Africa and the Rhodesias. He will be remembered in Port Elizabeth for his 1959 production of Murder Without Crime, sponsored by the Cripple Care Association. It was on the last night of this production that he married his attractive artist wife, Patsy, who has worked with him on each subsequent production. Together they have made a name for themselves in Durban. More successes followed with Death of a Salesman, Five Finger Exercise and The Eagle Has Two Heads. Apart from his theatre work, David was a well-known voice on the radio, both in Durban radio productions on the English programme and in From Crystal, with Love on Springbok Radio, in which he plays Brian Cheswick. He broadcasts frequently in the Death Touched My Shoulder series on Springbok Radio.

Sources

Theatre programme Death of a Salesman, Amateur Theatre Guild production in 1962.

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