The much maligned pre-historic male will finally have his say in a one-man play called ?Defending the Caveman? that kicks off the Bermuda Festival season tonight at the City Hall Theatre.

?Defending the Caveman? is a comical look at gender roles that claims the differences between men and women stem from pre-historic times when men went out to (try to) catch meat using stealth, while women stayed at home cooking berries and nuts in case things didn?t work out.

The play, written by comedian Rob Becker, is one of the longest running plays in Broadway history. It is so well known that former New York City mayor Rudolph Guiliani declared July 18, 1996 ?Caveman Day? and actually renamed a street in the city after the play.

Ralph Blumenthal at The New York Times has referred to ?Defending the Caveman? as a ?nationwide comic phenomenon?.

It will be performed by Chris Sullivan, a native of California who has appeared in such productions as ?Macbeth?, ?Twelfth Night? and ?Portia Coughlan?, among others.

Playwright Mr. Becker wrote ?Defending the Caveman? between 1988 and 1991, when he made an informal study of anthropology, pre-history, psychology, sociology and mythology.

Mr. Becker, a San Jose, California native, started performing in the Bay area in 1981 and has made frequent appearances on US television and radio programmes.

According to Mr. Becker, the genders emerged from opposite roles. The premise of ?Defending the Caveman? is that we have not evolved as far as we think we have from our hunter-gatherer roots.

?Hunters concentrate on their prey, to the exclusion of everything else,? said Mr. Becker.

He said the idea of a ?man of few words? is an extension of the hunting environment. Single-mindedness, stealth and above all, silence, was the ingrained credo by which our male ancestors lived by if they were able to be successful in bringing home the bacon.

?Meanwhile back at the cave, the gatherer, the nurturer and the one who kept the pots boiling developed multi-tasking skills which she shared with her fellow gatherers, while talking scared away the predators,? said Mr. Becker.

?Two millennia later, man at 2,000 words (maximum) a day is still lagging behind his female counterpart who comes in at a minimum at 7,000 words a day. By the end of the day, she may be exhausted, overwhelmed but still exhilarated at having ?talked? things out.?

For more information contact the Bermuda Festival Office at 295-1291 or check out their website at www.bermudafestival.com .