I have spent most of my adult life unaware that what I was missing was a novel about an ill-fated 1971 solo theatre performance by the disgraced late German actor Klaus Kinski. Jesus Christ Kinski fills that unlikely void with a disturbingly enjoyable treatment of the event and its controversial star, a volatile but compelling screen presence.

The show, Jesus Christ Erlöser (Jesus Christ Saviour), which was also written by Kinski, was staged at the Deutschlandhalle, a grand sports arena built by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It portrayed Jesus as a revolutionary who defied authority and, as a result, was executed. The premiere was a disaster. From the moment Kinski began his speech, people heckled, demanded their money back and climbed on stage to air their grievances. The actor gave as good as he got, hurling abuse and occasionally manhandling unruly audience members until the early hours. It was all captured by the filmmaker Peter Geyer, whose footage was released as a documentary in 2008.

The first half of Myers’s book unfolds in two ‘acts’, exploring Kinski’s inner world as he takes the stage in a second-person monologue full of fury and self-aggrandisement. He blames his agent for allowing this ‘stupid folly’ to proceed, seemingly aware that the enterprise is doomed. The ‘ignorant mob’ –