What must you do to uncover the truth? Eldrin Veloso’s Pilato aims to answer that question; premiering this April 4-13 at the PETA Theatre Center in Quezon City. This musical tells the story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ through the perspective of Pontius Pilate—or more known as Poncio Pilato—hoping the audience to have a fresh perspective as Pilato as “a man in between the crossroads of power, faith and duty.”
Pontius Pilates is a name you can easily recognize; Pilates is a character in the Bible, a Roman Governor who presided over the trial of Jesus and eventually, ordered his crucifixion. In this bold reimagining, Pilato is an all-original Filipino musical production, which consists of Pilato’s early life, his ambition to be a governor in Rome, and the growing influence of Hesus, whose teachings and advocacies differ from the status quo at the time.
“It’s interesting to look at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the perspective of Pilate, without becoming just another Senakulo. It’s an old story, so we brought it to today’s view, with the question Pilate himself asked over 2,000 years ago—what is the truth?” Writer and Director, Veloso shared in a press conference in February.
Poncio Pilato’s decisions are heavily dissected by an important handful of people; the historiographer, Josepo; the high priest, Caiaphas; his wife, Procla; and lastly, Hesus himself, whose presence was rumoured to be the “King of the Jews.”
Josepo is the only character in this musical who is fictional, his character is used to show that the problems back then are still relevant today, and how humans never learn, and always have the desire to self-sabotage, love, be jealous, and other traits.
The musical opens just in time for Holy Week, which can cause some raised brows due to the subject, some may even claim it to be blasphemous, however, these stories are still important to be told; to understand that we, as humans are flawed, and we make mistakes, we may trust the wrong people, not necessarily to plead for forgiveness—as much as it is our nature to do so as well—but to understand the why we do these actions, and to uncover “ano ang katotohanan?”
Pilato will run from April 4 to 13, with performances at 3:00pm and 8:00pm at the PETA Theatre Center. Tickets are now available online and updates, as well as behind the scenes content, are now regularly posted on the musical’s official Facebook and Instagram pages.
