The Gospel of Luke

FRINGE REVIEW

The Gospel of Luke

Bruce Kuhn

The Lot Venue 34

Grassmarket, Edinburgh

August 13, 14,th 17th & 18th

Reviewed by David Kerr

BRUCE Kuhn jokes that this one-man show is cheap to stage. No props are required and the Authorised King James Bible is out of copyright. All he has to do is memorise word-for-word the life of Jesus as told by Luke and deliver it to his audience.

That seems like a tall order. It's hard enough at times to read a short passage of scripture with any fluency or coherence. Kuhn, though has no such problems. He pulls it off superbly, He opens in the conversational style of a letter from Luke to his old friend Theophilus. But Kuhn's delivery doesn't stay conversational for long as he unearths the depths of emotion in Christ's life as told by Luke. He reminds us that the characters in Luke's Gospel were flesh and blood people like us. They were upset, confused and angry at times just like us. They weren't a special breed of super-holy other-worldly person.

Take Joseph and Mary's frantic worry over the loss of their twelve-year-old son on a visit to Jerusalem. The relief mixed with exasperation experienced by Mary when she found her boy debating with rabbis in the temple is something with which every parent can identify. Like most youngsters of his age, the young Jesus just wondered what all the fuss was about.

Kuhn holds the listener's attention effortlessly. This fresh take on an old story is well worth hearing. It's also available on DVD but as Kuhn modestly said, the DVD is not as good as the book. ****