Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers review – inside the mind of an actor in meltdown

Narrator Rory Kinnear fully inhabits Klaus Kinski’s fury in this depiction of the irascible actor’s ill-fated performance in Berlin

In 1971, the German actor Klaus Kinski performed a theatrical monologue called Jesus Christ Saviour at the Deutschlandhalle arena in Berlin, but things didn’t quite go to plan. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Kinski was irascible, egomaniacal and prone to violent temper tantrums.

The film director Werner Herzog famously worked with Kinski on movies including Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo and later filmed a documentary about the actor’s unhinged antics called My Best Fiend. The antipathy went both ways: in his memoir, Kinski fantasised about Herzog dying of the plague or being eaten alive by ants.

In his experimental novella Jesus Christ Kinski, Benjamin Myers attempts to get inside the mind of the actor during his ill-fated Berlin performance when, having cast himself as the messiah, he was laughed at and heckled by onlookers, some of them demanding their money back. The show gradually dissolved into a slanging match between Kinski and his rapidly dwindling audience.

As narrator, the actor Rory Kinnear energetically inhabits Kinski, revelling in his uncontrolled fury and scattergun insults. Rising to the crescendo of interruptions, Kinski eyeballs a heckler and shouts: “I am a genius, you piece of shit!”

Kinski’s tirade is broken up with recollections from his early life, his work with Herzog, plus scenes in which an unnamed writer – whom we take to be Myers – ponders the wisdom of his latest project. While these latter sections don’t have the same punch as the Kinski meltdown, they offer intriguing ruminations on the writing process and how much oxygen should be given to an actor who, were he alive today, would almost certainly be cancelled.

• Available via Bloomsbury, 3hr 7min

Further listening

Keep Laughing
Chris McCausland, Penguin Audio, 10hr 5min
The comic and Strictly winner reflects on his early years in Liverpool, his experience of sight loss, his career in standup and his unexpected pivot to dancing. Read by the author.

Caledonian Road
Andrew O’Hagan, Faber, 22hr 51min
O’Hagan’s state-of-the-nation novel is set in contemporary London and follows the fortunes of a wealthy art historian and writer Campbell Flynn, a man who has it all until an unwise business association brings a dramatic unravelling. Narrated by Michael Abubakar.