So last night we went to see a Passion Play (Easter production).
We’d never been to this church, had been invited by SO’s co-worker, blah blah blah.
Whoa.
Story of Jesus’ life, about 2 hours, with great gospel-style groovin music, special effects (fog machines,tiki torches live animals, etc.) and great sets and costumes. you’d never think this was in a cuhrch instead of a theatre.
Well, I figgered when it came time to depict the Crucifixtion, they would maybe do it with shadows, or just have people talking about it.
Nah-Uh.
They went there. They went EVERYWHERE.
They had the guy playing Jesus, covered in fake blood from head to toe, splattering it everywhere, with his arms bound to a log while Roman soldiers were whipping the **** out of him fairly convincingly.
Then they laid him down on stage, crowded around him, had these indescribably hideous CHINK CHINK echoing noises that were supposed to be the nails, then stood him up on a cross
in front of the crowd.
He’s writhing and wailing in pain while toddlers in the crowd are screaming and their parents are regretting ignoring the no-young-children advisory on the program.
HOLY MOLY!! (uhh-no pun intended?!)
Has anyone ever seen anything like this?
Are a lot of Easter plays this graphic?
Well, I live in the South, and I attended a southern Baptist church for nigh on twenty years. Every Easter play I’ve ever seen is exactly that gruesome.
Even now, I live in a very liberal enlightened university town, and every Christmas, in the Christmas parade, there is one local church that has a float with a gargantuan cross and a real live man hanging on it. Golgotha on a float. (In my best Steel Magnolias bleeding armadillo-esque voice): “He’s bleeding. He’s moaning. It’s awful.”
In a way it makes sense. Considering a major part of the religion is based around the fact that this man suffered and died for you, died a horrible, nasty, painful, and slow death, all on behalf of mankind… well, showing it graphically drives home exactly how human Jesus was at that time, and how much he did suffer when he was crucified; it wasn’t just “let’s tie him up and boom tomorrow he’s resurrected from the dead, how magical! Pass me a chocolate bunny.”
Standard disclaimer: I am no longer a Christian, but I do find religion and mythology fascinating.