Having completed Matthew, Mark and Luke, Alex Brown is planning to bring the gospel of John to life this Easter.

For the past three years, Alex Brown has been performing the gospels,

Now he’s in the final stages of preparation for his forth and final piece, the gospel according to John.

For his performances, he begins by learning a gospel, word for word from the Bible.

Alex told the Courier: ’The idea came to me while I was planning a retreat week for a local Christian charity I used to head up, but the big question was how?

’It’s a lot to learn, and it wasn’t a major part of my role, so I needed a way to do it quickly and effectively.’

But Alex is no stranger to acting.

His first degree was in drama, music and children’s literature, although he hasn’t learnt a significant script since his graduation in 1996.

To learn his scripts, Alex records the whole piece and listens to it as he performs so he can focus on making the words fit an action and in his words ’come alive’.

He said ’I’ve absolutely loved doing these performances. It’s challenged me so much even just from a drama perspective, but because the 4 gospels are all quite different from each other, I feel that my personal faith had also grown.

’Even after having two theology degrees, going into this much depth has really challenged me as to how to live and be as a Christian.’

Having proved successful at the retreat week, Alex decided he wanted to take his performances to a wider audience.

So over Easter 2015 he performed in the marquee at Tynwald Mills, a field on a farm, a front room in Douglas, a conference centre in the UK before finishing at St German’s Cathedral.

Following the success of the gospel according to Mark, he followed this up in 2016 with Luke and in 2017, the gospel according to Matthew.

He has now performed these shows in four venues in the UK, church services and a large conference to celebrate Scripture Union’s 150th anniversary.

He said: ’I’ve tried to make the four as different from each other as possible.

’Matthew’s gospel used a giant rear projection screen which I also worked as I performed, but this time I am creating some giant pieces of art to place around my venues.’

While this may be the last of the gospels, it is likely this won’t be the last we see of Alex as he has plans to bring other sections of the Bible to life.

’I am going to miss putting these together, but I have in my head a couple of projects for the future, I’d like to gather a whole load of artistic people together more regularly in the future to explore human spirituality from a Christian perspective.

’I’d also love the challenge of reducing the whole story of the bible into a 90 minute review using humour, drama, mine, music and art in some way.’

For the gospel of John, Alex will only be performing it three times and only twice in the island, on March 20 at Peel Cathedral and St Ninian’s Church, Douglas, both begin at 7.30pm and last about 90 minutes.