Luke Sunderland will perform at the Durham and Newcastle Fringe Festivals

Luke Sunderland is professor of medieval French literature at Durham, known as Luke Connell in comedy. He is a regular panellist on the Stand Comedy Club Newcastle’s monthly show Nerds Just Wanna Have Fun, a unique comedy night blending real research and unexpected discoveries. Nerds has won a Kapow Club award for ensuring that people with autism and learning disabilities are welcomed. Luke has appeared on many academic-comedy events like Comedy for the Curious, Pint of Science and the Bright Club, and spoken on Radio 4’s “In Our Time”. 

The show brings together Luke’s academic and comedic personalities to offer comic tour of the medieval world. Rather than the tired medieval themes of kings and battles, Luke draws on his research to tell audiences about medieval ideas, stories and inventions. Featuring props, songs and games, Bloody Marvellous introduces audiences to creatures like sea-centipedes and manticores, dogs with names like Havegoodday, and characters like Eilmer the flying monk. Luke shows off the old world’s taste in tourist tat, and tries to convince everyone that medieval medicine – with treatments involving things like dragons’ blood – was more exciting than the modern kind.  

The show will be performed at the Newcastle, Durham, Buxton and Greater Manchester Fringes in July 2025 before it hits the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2025.