frost
Assistant executioner
Ave fellow passion play fans,
here is another play I found which may be of interest. Its not from season 2018, but season 2016, I seemed to have missed this one. As usual (for my taste) the youngsters playing the traditional "thieves", are in my opinion far more interesting than the Jesus figure, which is once again treated with far too much blood makeup. The scene with the "thieves" include only the raising of the crosses and showing them quickly withing in agony on their crosses. Another short close-up can be seen when Jesus dies and the "earth" is shaking.
Too bad, I really would have liked to see more of these two, nevertheless even its short its pretty good. the acting of feeling the pain is not perfect, but OK, the loinclothes skimpy and dirty enough and the boys (over 18, of course) and their nice bodies are different enough as victim types to keep your interest. the right one really looks a bit like a young man from ancient Palestine in appearance.
Must have been quite an experience for these boys to be displayed on the cross in front of such an audience. Even if its indoor, the stage is really huge. I wish I would have got such an fantastic opportunity when I was young.
The video quality is just outstanding, like blu-ray 1080p.
I really like the attention to details in this play, like when the bodies of the "thieves" are taken down, the "blood" on the spots at hands and feet stays visible where they would have been nailed and they are not only using simple bloodless ropes or hooks where the actors are pretending to hang on the cross like in most other plays. Same for the loinclothes, you do not even see pants or underwear, which may destroy the "illusion". Even if those usual foot-rests are used here, too, by bendings the knees and holding the feet one over the other the crucifixion illusion is still acceptable. Well done, all in all.
Here it is:
Transmissão Ao Vivo do Paixão pela Vida 2016 - Manaus
Hint: the crucifixion starts at 1:32:42
I attached a few stills showing the main attraction(s)...
best regards
Ty.
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Very nice, Tygorn! I completely agree with you regarding the two lads on either side: if I'd been directing, the entire production would've been given over to their stripping and nailing and agonized struggles. With more time, the stripping could've been taken a little further, too... Trouble is, the churches who produce these things insist on focusing on the hairy guy in the middle.
I'm not quite happy about the position of the arms, which I think should be more outstretched. I'd think that when the cross is first elevated and the subject slides down, the arms would pull tight, straightening the elbow (and giving us spectators a nice look up into the armpit). Ditto during the earthquake scene, when our young thugs are presumably worn out from their hours of struggling and pain, and should only be able to hold themselves up briefly before exhaustion forces them to drop back down. Instead, they both seem to spend a lot of time with their elbows bent.
I notice that four guards are able to erect the crosses without much trouble, although the crosses are quite high. For the middle cross, they use ropes around the arms and also push it with poles; but for the two thieves, they just push them up without special equipment. That's encouraging: I'd rather not clutter my crucifixion scene with cranes and such. This is especially germane to my modified-Spartacus scenario, which involves the crucifixion of a number of young men from a defeated military unit or captured city, and in which a few of the prisoners are drafted to crucify the rest, baited by the false promise that their lives will be spared and they'll be allowed to join the conquering army if they perform their task adequately. The psychological discomfort that these crucifiers experience in unwillingly handling the naked bodies of their fellows is one of the appealing features of the situation, so we want to stay away from ropes and poles and things that'd reduce their contact with bare flesh.