Enacting episodes from the life of Christ

“Kalvary Nayagan” (Lord of Calvary), a dramatic presentation of episodes from the life of Jesus Christ held at St. Joseph’s College on Saturday, successfully evoked the spirit of the month of Lent, by highlighting the prophet’s undying faith and forgiveness.

The Inigo block of the St. Joseph’s College provided the backdrop for the grand one-and-half-hour evening open-air production, that combined elements from drama and film with the traditional sound and light show. “Kalvary Nayagan” follows the template of the ‘passion play’ commonly held in the run-up to Easter. The 180-strong cast and technical team was drawn from a pool of 123 male and female students, 15 professors, 22 parishioners, 12 professional technicians and others.

This was the third year of the show’s staging since its debut in 2013.

Starting with a dramatisation of the “Original Sin” which sees fall of Adam and Eve from their Creator’s grace after they are misled by Satan, “Kalvary Nayagan” quickly moved on to the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus Christ and a brief aside about the Virgin Mary.

Christ’s emergence as a prophet who preached eternal love and forgiveness was charted through various parables with a Biblical context. The three-dimensional setting of the Last Supper, done with the aid of a cloth screen and angled chair arrangements, was also impressive.

The show ended with the Crucifixion of Christ in Calvary, a graphic depiction in film and live theatre that was ably supported by a dramatic background score.

‘Kalvary Nayagan’s greatest strength was its use of multi-level stage settings, with the arched corridors of the college campus providing an ideal set-piece for almost frieze-like depictions of scenes and iconic figures from the Bible. The panoramic shift to and from the Museum entrance during the climactic scenes added to the drama of the Crucifixion. Especially effective was the mingling of the cast with the audience at various points of the play, which brought immediacy to the religious subject, and also kept the youngsters in the audience of over a thousand people, engrossed in the proceedings.

Computer science faculty V.S.Joe Irudhayraj, S. Briito Ramesh Kumar and J. Vimal Jerald had trained the cast for the show since January.

Directed by M. J. I. Raj, Principal, Christhuraj College, and S. Albert Rabara, Professor of Computer Science, St. Joseph’s College, the production was jointly organised by the Catholic Centre, Tiruchi and Catholic Association of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, St. Joseph’s College.