Williamson: Collected Plays Volume IV: Cruise Control; Dream Home; Happiness; Jack of Hearts

David Williamson is the most popular, prolific and produced playwright in Australian history. These four comedies consolidate his place as a great dramatic entertainer. Williamson turns his unflinching gaze on the foibles and follies of married life and life itself.

In Jack of Hearts, Williamson has written his charm into a lovable loser who does his best to disprove the theory that nice guys always finish last.

In Cruise Control three philandering, bickering and workaholic couples board a cruise ship travelling from London to New York for seven days of marital healing.

Dream Home follows Dana and Paul, whose dream turns into a nightmare when they discover their perfect beachside flat is festering with neighbours' grudges, death threats, come-ons, heart-to-hearts, the smell of oysters ... and Paul's ex-girlfriend living upstairs in the throes of regret.

In Happiness, Williamson follows Roland, a professor of Wellbeing, and his cynical wife Hanna as they grapple with the elusiveness of the emotion.

DAVID WILLIAMSON is Australia's best known and most widely performed playwright. His first full-length play The Coming of Stork was presented at La Mama Theatre in 1970 and was followed by The Removalists, Don's Party, The Department, The Club, Travelling North, The Perfectionist, Sons of Cain, Emerald City, Top Silk, Money and Friends, Brilliant Lies, Sanctuary, Dead White Males, After the Ball, Corporate Vibes, Face to Face, Rupert, Nearer the Gods, and Sorting out Rachel. He has had over fifty plays produced. His plays have been translated into many languages and performed internationally, including major productions in London, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. As a screenwriter, Williamson has brought to the screen his own plays including The Removalists, Don's Party, The Club, Travelling North and Emerald City along with his original screenplays for feature films including Libido, Petersen, Gallipoli, Phar Lap, The Year of Living Dangerously and Balibo. The adaptation of his play Face to Face, directed by Michael Rymer, won the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Williamson was the first person outside Britain to receive the George Devine Award (for The Removalists). His many awards include twelve Australian Writers' Guild AWGIE Awards, five Australian Film Institutes' Awards for Best Screenplay and, in 1996 the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award. In 2005 he was awarded the Richard Lane Award for services to the Australian Writers' Guild. David has received four honorary doctorates and been made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Williamson has been named one of Australia's Living National Treasures.