Plenty of exclamations in English such as What an amazing day! celebrating the good fortune of those who travel to Mallorca and get what they were promised: good weather. Some of the tourists who gathered this Good Friday in the central Plaça de Cort in Palma undoubtedly arrived by chance, but the vast majority of them stayed, drawn by a spectacle which, whilst traditional in nature—after all, it is a performance of the Via Crucis—is nonetheless very special: it is not a procession. In fact, it is a production staged for almost 40 years by the theatre group Taula Rodona, led by Bernat Pujol.
That is why, even though tourists make up a large part of the sizeable audience, Mallorcans are also loyal spectators of this event, which has become one of the unmissable highlights of Holy Week. Based on the text by Llorenç Moyà, Taula Rodona’s Via Crucis is the perfect prelude to the Sant Enterrament or the Davallament, which takes place both in Palma and in numerous villages around the island.
As Pujol stated a few days ago: ‘It is not a procession. It is a theatrical rite blending poetry, movement, cries, weeping and music, designed to fully engage every member of the audience. It offers a Passolinian vision of absolute austerity to convey a universal perspective far removed from provincial clichés”.
We cannot, therefore, speak of a procession, though it is one in principle insofar as the starting point is the Town Hall, but the twenty or so performers make their way towards Ses Voltes, the final stage of the performance, passing through Calle Conquistador, the Hort del Rei and circulating around the vicinity of the Cathedral. At Hort del Rei, the procession had to take place on the pavement as, according to a Local Police officer, she was not aware that Avenida Antoni Maura needed to be closed to the public. Nevertheless, the route proceeded without incident.
In any case, there were some rather surreal scenes along this route, particularly on the Paseo de Dalt Murada, where a Palma City Council worker had to ask the street vendors to make a little more space so as not to obstruct the passage of the procession heading towards Ses Voltes. The event began there right on time, minutes before 12.30 pm, the scheduled start time for the spectacle.
It was not the most picturesque performance, given that the area around the cathedral – including the steps, where this Via Crucis was held until 2022 – has been under construction for several weeks, meaning the sight of the scaffolding marred the setting. Conditions that were far from ideal and which, nevertheless, had nothing to do with the organisation or the fine work of anartistic team and cast who once again delivered a superb performance of theWay of the Cross.
A cast that has become a hallmark of the event, featuring familiar faces from this tradition, such as Àngel Colomer in the role of Christ, Rafel Pizarro as the thief, and narrators including the artist Catalina Sureda and Pep Banyo, as well as the voice of Vicky Pieniazek, who adds an extra dose of drama to the production.
Nevertheless, this year’s production welcomed two new actors: David Dimas and Caterina Dijksterhuis, who played one of the guards and one of the women, respectively. All in all, then, it has been a Way of the Cross that is, paradoxically, both the same and different, as is the case with the finest theatrical performances, where the script may be the same, even repeated for decades, but each performance is unique.