Poor Man, Rich Man was specially written by Hugh Steadman Williams for the French mime, singer and actor Michel Orphelin. It is a one-man portrayal of the life of St Francis of Assisi, seen as our twentieth century contemporary. Through mime, monologue and seventeen songs, with imaginative visual and sound effects, Poor Man, Rich Man offers a St Francis far removed from the stained-glass window figure who spoke to the birds. It poses the question: how would
St Francis have expressed his radical message and life-style if he had lived in our own day? It shows us a man who turned the values of his own age upside down and who poses a considerable challenge to ours. Kathleen Johnson wrote the music which was arranged and directed by John Burrows. The original production was directed and designed by John Dryden. Poor Man, Rich Man, was first performed at the Netherbow Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1979. After a short tour in England and Wales it returned to the Netherbow Theatre for the Fringe of the 1979 Edinburgh Festival. That winter it was translated and adapted into French by Parisian song-writer Frank Gérald and by Michel Orphelin. There followed extensive tours of this French version Un Soleil en Pleine Nuit in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Rolland, Germany and Canada. The English version was revived for performances in the United States in the spring of 1983, sponsored by Moral Re-Armament.
‘A fresh, original theatrical experience’ - The Scotsman, Edinburgh.
English
