#jcs50

Two hours later, I left the theatre feeling like every wire in my brain had been struck by lightning.

The set was a marvel: industrial, rusty towers looming over an almost-bare stage, bifurcated by an elevated platform shaped as a cross. Creative use of spotlights could make it a shadowy place of horror, or a bright-lit street. Almost immediately the tone was set: the cross was already there, waiting. The costuming was bombastic when it had the incentive to be: the statuesque Herod within his golden cloak was incredible, as was the rhinestone-studded codpiece he wore beneath it. The priests with their bare chests bejewelled to draw attention to their nipples, all under traditional prayer shawls, was another example of camp used to strong (if somewhat comedic) effect. However, for the most part it was pared-back, simple, with a palette of muted, solid colours more suggestive than illustrative. Mary, for example, was draped in the second act in a blue wrap – a choice tying her closer to the Virgin than Magdalene.

Microphones were perhaps one of the key props throughout the show. Characters with ‘voice’ at any given moment passed between each other or fought over a literal microphone on its stand. As the musical progressed, it became a powerful symbol of a character’s ‘life’, so to speak, or at least their ability to define their own life. The microphone was the vehicle through which the character spoke their story as loud as they could over the grind of the larger story and the voices of others: Judas snatched the microphone stand from Mary after her iconic song while they glare hatefully at each other; on arrest Jesus is divested first of his microphone, and on reappearance a microphone dangles between his handcuffs. Judas hangs himself with the microphone’s cord. Jesus is literally crucified on the microphone stand.

Another standout area was the dancing. Frenetic, repetitive gestures in perfect sync by the ensemble as they prowled around the stage, somewhere between symbol and atmosphere. Even at its most peaceful and encouraging, the edge of potential violence within the mob was never truly lost on account of the energy of the dance. Demanding physicality became almost orgiastic, lending an erotic edge to every mob scene centred around Jesus that reached its metaphorical climax upon the crucifixion. Somewhere between a Greek chorus, a crowd of shades, the voice of Fate, and literally just some guys/Jesus’ deadbeat apostles, their undefined slipperiness introduced a faceless floating lack of identity to both those who followed Jesus and those who killed him, conflating the two into a singular non-entity, a being of actions alone.

But this was all set dressing. It would have made for fine entertainment, but passion pieces were a dime a dozen. Jesus, having the dubious honour of being one of the most discussed guys of the last few centuries, had no shortage of theatrical dedications that ranged the gamut from hilariously posh to throat-pulsing grunge. What made this production different? What part of it touched my soul? I think I would say: the interiority of Jesus himself.

There is no shortage of answers to the question of who Jesus is; as mentioned, he’s a talked about guy! But the subset of answers to the question of who Jesus is without the addition of humanity seems to be much smaller. Perhaps interest isn’t as strong in Jesus outside of ‘what can he do for us’. It’s unfortunate that it’s this exact question that has occupied my brain for years. Who is Jesus without the trap of the Saviour, the Messiah, the guy who’s got to die? Where does Jesus exist outside of what we need for him to do, what we want for him to do, indeed, outside ourselves at all? What sort of personality might have sustained the life we attribute to Jesus Christ, when we strip away the self-soothing impulse to have unconditional acceptance, acquiescence and serenity from a guy who died – as the Christian doctrine teaches, for our sake? What is, I suppose, Jesus’ perspective? Does this guy have hobbies, come on!

Obviously, Jesus Christ Superstar is strongly concerned with the question of who Jesus is from the eyes of humanity, the entire musical is a debate from various concerned parties on the purpose, the nature, the consequences of Jesus as an existence. However, instead of an eternal cipher of conceptual ambiguity, Jesus exists as an actual presence buckling against the relentless probing/shaping effort that bombards him from all side, including above. A visible struggle for selfhood takes place onstage that ends in annihilation, from the initial tussle over his ministry in the triangle of Judas-Jesus-Simon (rip Simon you’re there for one song but TO ME you are a thematic cornerstone) to the various attempts to place Jesus within different frameworks of understanding; political (priests, the continuous references to the King of the Jews), personal (Mary, to some extent Judas), divine (God).

The Jesus we see cannot fulfill everyone’s expectations, more to that point, he is not what each of these predefined images are: what he is hovers, futilely resistant, beyond the ken of understanding and indeed almost evoking fear. Both Mary and Judas, in their songs of trying to understand Jesus, expose a deep fear: that of Jesus’ reciprocation. It speaks to an understanding of divinity that’s almost passive; God as a receptacle for human ideas, God as invocation as opposed to personality. The agency-destroying imprint of divinity leaves Jesus’ selfhood crimped even with those who get the closest, who profess the deepest understanding. It’s that resistance, that frustration, that defines a ‘core’ to the character of Jesus. In his evasion of the boxes pre-filled for him, he marks out the space of what he is. He pins himself down, so to speak, into something more than an ephemeral concept of sacrifice, inhabiting the clouded fairy-realm of fable with a body.

without further ado let's get into it 🙌

SO I DID 🫡

everyone passing their microphones around/sharing mics (like when Jesus took it from Pilate to answer him after he'd been beaten because his voice was gone!)

Judas and Mary giving little “I hate you" looks after her song/before he gives Jesus up

Jesus waiting on stage to see if Judas would try and look in the money chest (and then he did, of course!)

Judas’s hands actually being stained silver by the blood money and then his silver suit when he’s dead matching!

Herod with a machete/sword(!?!?!?) because he beheaded John, a threat to do it to Jesus too!

Pilate is a rockstar lol

Jesus taking off his crown of thorns and laying it between him and Judas when he gets off the cross 

The disciples recreating The Last Supper and being totally stupid and clueless. Ignoring Jesus to return to their songs and dreaming heaven LITERALLY on their minds and ignoring the present!

Gotta figure out who that dancing girl is supposed to be, fate? God? Both?

Yo those priests were hella weird