Gospel of St John

At St Augustine's Church on Saturday 9th May, I saw an amazing performance. A one-man show who had memorised the entire Gospel of St John - more than 20,000 words (of course, in order). Though of great familiarity, hearing the Gospel all in one go really strung the story together and originally it was emant to be heard than read (in the days when universal literacy was not even an aspiration, much less a given). The fact it was an actor who delivered the lines, meant that he got almost all the cadences right and different characters came to life (again) even though they all had the same American accent. A true performer, he enagaged the audience well, though if one is a bit shy a front-row seat was not the best place to sit for once, since he took in the first few rows as his disciples. His few props were judiciously used (for example, a chalkboard was marked with a cross and then hammered three times, before becoming the stone over the entrance to the tomb), though he must get through quite a few washbuckets on his tour, the way he treated this one. It was in two parts, the first and hour and twenty minutes, an interval of 15 minutes and then a concluding section of fifty minutes. The inexorable turn of events in the second part was especially compelling with it being delivered in full. It was a great piece of show that was spiritually and emotionally gripping and ultimately uplifting.