James David Rudkin (born 29 June 1936) is an English playwright.
Coming from a family of strict evangelical Christians,[1] he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and read Mods and Greats at St Catherine's College, Oxford.
Beginning to write during national service in the Royal Corps of Signals, Rudkin taught Latin, Greek and music at North Bromsgrove High School in Worcestershire until 1964,[2] while also directing amateur theatre productions.
[3] Following the success of his first play Afore Night Come (1962), Rudkin translated works by Aeschylus, Roger Vitrac, the libretto of Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron, and wrote the book to the Western Theatre Ballet's Sun into Darkness (Sadlers Wells 1963)[4] and the libretto for Gordon Crosse's comic opera, The Grace of Todd.
[2] He has written for television, including The Stone Dance (1963), Children Playing (1967), House of Character (1968)[4] (staged by the Birmingham Rep as No Title in 1974), Blodwen, Home from Rachel's Marriage (1969), Bypass (1972), Atrocity (1973), the Alan Clarke-directed Penda's Fen (1974), and Artemis 81 (1981); for radio, including No Accounting for Taste (1960), Gear Change (1967),[2] Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin (1973) (also staged by the RSC); and for cinema, including François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966).