James Saunders

James Saunders (1925-2004) was born in Islington, North London. He received an Arts Council playwright's bursary for THE ARK in 1960, and became a full-time playwright in 1964. His early plays led him to be considered one of the main British exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. Later works continued to explore the limits of traditional theatre. In 1984 he was awarded a Major Bursary. NEXT TIME I’LL SING TO YOU ran at the Criterion Theatre 1962-63, winning for him an Evening Standard award for Most Promising Playwright (1963) and since then his plays have enjoyed enormous success both in the West End and with amateur theatre clubs. A SCENT OF FLOWERS was staged at the Duke of York's in 1964, THE TRAVAILS OF SANCHO PANZA at the National Theatre in 1969, and BODIES at Hampstead and subsequently at the Ambassador's Theatre in 1984. He was associated for a number of years with the Questors Theatre in Ealing, but from 1972 he worked closely with Sam Walters' Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, Surrey. Both FALL and BODIES were commissioned and first staged by the Orange Tree and in 1991 they presented his adaptation of Vaclav Havel's REDEVELOPMENT. RETREAT (1995), his last play, was premiered by the Orange Tree Company in their new theatre.