The Accountment of Luke
"As dusk gave way to darkness, the audience sat around a table in a tea house in South London and were offered wine, bread and olive oil for dipping. From the off it was clear this wasn't going to be traditional theatre. At the head of the table sat Luke the Apostle, as played by James Hyland. One-man shows are something of a trademark for James Hyland, acclaimed for his portrayals of Fagin in his last hour, the ghost of Jacob Marley and Dr Jekyll possessed by Mr Hyde. This time he has turned his attention to the last days of Jesus, a story that is often delivered as an abstract allegory... But this retelling, written from Luke's perspective, transcended stuffy rhetoric and felt refreshingly tangible. It embraced Theatre as a shared experience – conversational in tone and compelling in delivery. Little details – the taste of bitter olives, the smell of eucalyptus – helped transport the audience back two thousand years, into the heart of Jesus’ inner circle...The audience gets a very real and relatable sense of group dynamics: the in-fighting, the petty gripes about domestic chores, the practicalities of running in sandals. There is something disarmingly ordinary about these men, which makes the brutality that comes next all the more affecting... Here is a telling that has stayed with me long after Easter Sunday. "
~Kirstie Brewer, BRITISH THEATRE JOURNAL
"AN EASTER TREAT... It was a reading of Luke's dramatised account of when Jesus gathered his disciples the night before he was taken by Roman soldiers and crucified... James guided most of [the audience] onto a long table the width of the stage where they were able to share olives, bread and wine... It was a fascinating account of the Last Supper as James put flesh on the bones of the Bible, talking about the disciples as men, explaining the pain of wearing a crown of thorns crushed down on the head and describing the blood and mud in gory detail... It was a relaxed but strangely sombre 90 minutes for Easter followed by a raft of questions."
~John Nurden, THE SHEERNESS TIMES GUARDIAN
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