⛃⛂ A Strange Thing, Mystifying ⛂⛃

A variety of (reportedly, since we have no footage) stunning set pieces were produced from this, such as Judas being swallowed by the giant head’s mouth for his death and Jesus being crucified on the giant cross. For more context, check out this Reddit post which also links a bunch of images from the prod.

Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain? Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain

but in this production, Jesus looked outright distressed and horrified to see a kid with this much power acting so cruelly, and there was one bit where Herod started waving a pistol around, both at Jesus and his servants, and Jesus was quietly trying to take the gun away from him but was unable to grab it

the set design had several propaganda posters with right wing slogans (anti-trans, pro-deportation, anti-abortion, pro-book burning, etc) covering the walls, having been painted over and vandalized with progressive slogans by jesus's followers

a large portion of the cast was trans, including jesus, and many of the costumes were gender non-conforming, especially among the apostles and jesus's followers

jesus's vibe in this production was very "community organizer in way over his head" and overall they leaned into the "leftist infighting" take on the apostles

"can we start again please?" was a candlelight vigil for jesus held outside of pilate's by the apostles

easily the most horrifying depiction of the temple i've seen; rather than going the usual route of "brothel" or "drug trafficking" that i've seen other modern productions do, this one portrayed it as straight-up human trafficking, with some of the victims being the refugee family we saw in the prologue. it was genuinely frightening to the point of it being a relief when jesus comes in and starts flipping tables

both judas and mary magdalene are present for the scene where jesus is mobbed and assaulted by the beggars, both looking increasingly upset, and mary is about to run over and interfere before jesus pushes them off himself. jesus breaks down in mary's arms while judas goes to see the pharisees

they super leaned into the mary magdalene-jesus-judas love triangle take, but to be fair, what other way is there to do it?

For easter, some of my favorite JCS Judases since i've never made this kind of lineup and over the years i've seen a few artists make this for their faves