Next Time I'll Sing To You

By James Saunders

Directed by Anthony Clark

'All I want to do is to understand the purpose of existence of one man, not of the population of Liverpool, you understand, just one man - examine him and we shall know ourselves.'

Each evening Rudge, the director (or is he the writer or a philosopher?) along with Meff, the joker, Dust, the cynic, and either Lizzie or her twin sister, gather to examine the life of the hermit of Great Canfield. Their quest is not made any easier by the actor hired to play the hermit wanting to know his 'motivation'.

Why did James Alexander Mason decide in 1906 at the age of 48 to sell his cottage, build a hut in field beyond his village, surround it with ditches, hives of wild bees, barbed wire and two tons of corrugated iron fence and take up solitary residence? His brother left him food every day, but he was not seen again until at the age of 84 he was brought out dead.

The first revival for many years of James Saunders' startling and innovative 1963 play.

Image copyright Mark Komissarouk.