Scenes from the Passion

By Lynn Aguiar

The Book Scenes from the Passion comprises of 10 major staged scenes. Starting from the first scene: The Agony in the Garden through the tenth scene: The Resurrection, the writer boldly and vividly displays the heart- rending physical sufferings of Jesus Christ, who has been known through the centuries as The Man of Sorrows. The scenes, portraying the Triple Denial of Peter, the Scourging at the pillar, Trial before Pilate, Crucifixion, take the audience into the microscopic details of the brutal innocence and dehumanized sufferings of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection scene, however, suddenly turns the sorrowful tears of the audience, into tears of immense and unending joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462824502

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by Lynn Aguiar.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

(Original Copyright: Bombay 1969)

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

PREFACE

SYNOPSIS OF SCENES FROM THE PASSION

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE II-A

SCENE II-B

SCENE III-A

SCENE III-B

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

SCENE VII

SCENE VIII

SCENE IX

SCENE X

PREFACE

Passion Plays are a dramatic presentation depicting the passion of Christ: the agony, trial, suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Passion plays, which started as Easter plays, have been staged since the 12th Century and became very popular during the 13th Century. The earliest passion play, known to us, is the one found at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy.

The Passion Play reached its crescendo in the period 1400-1515, including such examples as the later Frankfort version (1467) and the Alsfelder and the Friedberger (1514) adaptations.

Public interest in the Passion Plays developed in the last decades of the 19th Century. Since then, Brixlegg and Vorderthiersee in Tyrol and Horice na Sumave, near Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, and above all, the Oberammergau, in Upper Bavaria, attract thousands to their plays.

The passion for Passion Plays spread rapidly throughout the world: Australia, Germany, India, Italy, The Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, and vastly throughout the United States of America.

The most famous of all is the passion play staged at Oberammergau in Upper Bavaria in Germany since 1634. Ravaged by a plague epidemic, the villagers of Oberammergau had promised God that if He saved them from the plague, they would faithfully stage a dramatic representation of the passion, death and resurrection every ten years. To this day, they have devoutly kept their promise. Over 2000 fervent Oberammergau actors, singers, instrumentalists, stage technicians and organizers get involved in the production of the play.

The passion of Jesus Christ has, also been portrayed in many different ways on the Big Screen. Epic movies like Life and passion of Jesus Christ (1905), King of Kings (1927 and 1961), Robe (1953), Ben Hur (1951) The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Day Christ Died – (1980 a TV movie), Jesus (2000 – CBS TV mini series), et al. The most recent version being, Mel Gibson’s world renowned Passion of the Christ", in which he uniquely emphasizes, in microscopic detail, the persistent temptations and the unthinkable brutal flogging to which Christ is subjected.

I started writing the play Scenes from the Passion in 1963, after a group of boys, who had met together soon after a Representation of the Passion of Christ, a Lenten Church Service, decided to put up a parish level Passion Play. It was the Good Friday Lenten service, at the Church of Our Lady of Egypt, Kalina, Bombay, portraying the bringing down of the life-like body of Christ from the cross that prompted us to put up a Passion Play. Since I wrote and staged a couple of school plays, the boys initiated me to have the Passion play written.

I had just finished High School and was preparing to enter college. During this gap of time, I burnt the midnight oil, night after night, for over 30 nights, gathering information for the script. In my dissertation, I stuck closely to the Gospel of John. During the time of writing the play, my mother kept awake, night after night, until I went to bed. I admired her motherly patience. May both, my mother and father, rest in peace, for now. Within 3 months, the script for the play was completed and typed. The unpublished typewritten manuscript of the play was locally copyrighted in 1969 and accepted by our Parish community, and subsequently staged in March of 1970 with six houseful performances. With a fervent devotion to the cause of spreading the Gospel, the cast of over 70, a production crew of over 20, an organizing committee of over100, and 6 months in the making, the three and a half hour play Scenes from the Passion, became a resounding success, with repeated houseful shows, performance after performance. Thereafter, the Play was repeatedly staged, at different parishes of the Archdioceses of Bombay (now Mumbai).

In the meantime, during the early Seventies, the Rock Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, a modernized musical re-interpretation of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel of John, by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Lyricist Tim Rice, made headlines and repeated hits around the world. In Mumbai (then Bombay) Jesus Christ Superstar, was staged in the late seventies, under the umbrella of the Theatre Group of Bombay and the exemplary direction and production of Alique Padamsee, a Muslim by faith, and India’s leading Advertising tycoon. This, among others like Evita was one of his blockbuster theatre productions, and ran with several houseful performances. Since I had written and staged Scenes from the Passion in Mumbai, and had just completed a course in ‘Introduction to the Theatre, I was selected to play a small role in the rock musical. During one of the rehearsals, I had the opportunity to sit with Alique Padamsee and give him a short description of my Play Scenes from the Passion", especially the production of the carrying of the cross and the crucifixion scenes. However, the gross omission of the presence of Mary the Mother of Christ in the rock musical, was a major Biblical fault, according to