Aldo Behrens brings “Pontius Who?” to Windhoek stage

The Musical, Drama and Theatre production “Pontius Who?” will be staged from  27 to 29 April at the Eros Dutch Reformed Church (NG Church) in Windhoek, crafted by Aldo Behrens and presented by Bank Windhoek and Lab Theatre.

Tickets are available at the Eros NG Church office for N$80. The shows start at 19:00.

Aldo Behrens based his text on the story of Pontius Pilate, by Eric Emmanuel Schmitte, with a blind beggar who got his sight back and a time traveller, both being played by David Ndjavere. This year’s play will feature the well-known Big K’s Gospel Group, a group who performed in the 2014 production of “a Whale in the Goreangab”.

The text is crafted on an alternative understanding of the virgin birth and the resurrection of Christ and will be seen from the perspective of a Roman citizen, a foreigner, a colonialist, a hard core politician, a non-Jew and an ordinary human being.

Behrens said that Pontius Who? is an artistic expression that encapsulates elements of a musical, a theatre production and load of drama and melodrama. The pivotal issue is not so much Pontius Pilate washing his hands, exonerating himself of the crucifixion of Jesus, but the rippling ramification of this self-indulgent act on his relationship with his wife and a number of other witnesses of the events at Calvary.

 

“The production can also be seen as the art of scripting a play, of auditioning, of designing voice and speech, movement, décor and costume. Also of lights, sound and characterization,” added Behrens.

The musical, drama and theatre production will explore the dilemma of Pontius Pilate who might have witnessed the manger birth of Christ in Bethlehem and whose wife, the stepdaughter of Caesar Tiberius, Claudia Procula, was cured by Jesus from twelve years of bleeding, when she touched the hem of his cloak, according to popular first century tradition but not according to scripture.