Venus as a Boy

Published Thursday 9 August 2007 at 15:15 by Duska Radosavljevic

As far as life stories go, this one is certainly one of a kind. Claimed to have been passed onto Luke Sutherland on a series of mini-discs, the confession from an Orkney Isles boy - whose open-hearted pursuit of true love led him into the sordid world of male prostitution - is also adorned with glittering moments of magic realism, humour and poetic truth. Sutherland also lends an atmospheric musical accompaniment to Tam Dean Burn’s dedicated rendition of the tale, testifying to a multi-layered understanding of effective storytelling, which is also inherent to the writing itself.

Variously referred to as Cupid or Desiree or Mr Cunt, our Venus boy with a magic touch and love-induced visions of heaven is never actually introduced by his real name, although we know that he was 38 when he died and that this show is part of a memorial tour. Sutherland’s novel, which forms a basis for the piece, is about to be made into a film too, so this is a must-see if you are in town, as it will be the closest you’ll get to touching the magic dust.