The Son of Man

From Hollywood, the CBS Radio Workshop, dedicated to man's imagination, the theatre of the mind. The CBS Radio Workshop presents The Son of Man, a Passion Play. The words of the Passion and Resurrection are taken from the four Gospels in the King James version of the Bible.

The music is the music of Bach. There are four speaking voices. The words of St. Mark are read by Herbert Marshall, those of St. Matthew by Robert Young, St. Luke by Victor Jory, and St. John by Vincent Price. These with the music make up the play. That is to say, the music as an actor's part for Johann Sebastian Bach was himself a witness,

to the event, but to the meaning of the event. Of the four speakers, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, we know little beyond the words they wrote in their gospels. These words, however, have much to say of their characters as men and of the differences between them. Mark speaks with the simplicity of an old man, remembering what he himself had seen. The

voice of one who had taken part in great actions, the gospel according to Mark. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets, behold I send my messenger before they face. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his powers straight.

And John did baptize in the wilderness, and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I, after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and un-loose. Matthew speaks with the force and authority of one who respects the past, one who has labored and lived among the people, long to their stories, and putting the great narrative together with love and humility