To say nothing of the make-up used to bring out the actor's piercing blue eyes in
Jesus of Nazareth, light on one side of the eye, and dark on the other.
For me, "Gethsemane" is the ultimate acting exercise. First of all, the first stage of the song is denial. People say that Ted Neeley's timing and singing behind the music is atrocious, but I think that pauses, within reason, are fine. Jesus doesn't really know what he wants to say. He needs a little time to think of exactly what he wants, and that's what the pauses are for. But don't overdo it--the vocal should still sound strong. He may not know exactly what he wants to say, but he's going to say it with as much power as he can muster for someone in his position.
"Listen, surely I've exceeded / Expectations tried for three years / Seems like thirty..." This is where it gets big. Very few pauses from here on in. He finally has everything figured out, and he's not very happy (the second stage: anger). Three years he's tried. Three years that has felt like thirty. Three long frustrating freaking years. And now, he knows what all that work is going to amount to. He's going to die a brutal painful death at the hands of the same people who follow him, to save a bunch of two-faced people he's never even met. And he tops it off by asking his executioner if he would ask any other man to die, and if he asked, does he really think the other man would accept?
Right now, the Big JC has a lot to deal with, and he's getting frustrated. He's pissed, yelling, screaming, throwing things up against walls, breaking things left and right from here on in as he begins the downhill slide. He raises his voice to the sky and yells at his Father asking, after a long run-on sentence mentioning his impending doom, why it is that he has to die. Is it absolutely necessary? Would it really make any difference? As I said above, there's doubt here--in his Father, in himself, in his cause. Maybe he just should give up. The anticipation alone is killing him. If he's going to die, what good will it do? He's a whole bag of emotions now--angry, frustrated, scared, sad, confused. He simply doesn't know what to do!
And then it comes, like a wave crashing on the shore. The High G. The perfect representation of anger and vulnerability. That scream paints an image that says more than any Scripture, any play, and any words could ever express. To me, the closest approximation to what it says is, "I'm still young. I'm here, screaming like I'm still six years old, because I don't know what else to do. I'm mad, I'm getting scared, I'm getting confused...I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm so frustrated...I need guidance, and I need it now." It's what I would do. It's what I'd expect others to do. It's what you would do...you know it. You would scream like a little girl if you knew you had to die. (Think Ian Gillan--probably not his intention, but that's what I think it meant.) It's a beautiful expression of helplessness.
After so much energy has been exerted from screaming at the top of his lungs, Jesus backs off a little bit to pry more into his doom. He starts mocking his Father, mocking the fact that he thinks he's so mighty and powerful, but can't make it so that one man can live. He wants to know exactly why he's going to die...he knows the circumstances, but not the reason. He's in the third stage, bargaining ("Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain? / ...Show me there's a reason for you wanting me to die"). Finally, he snaps. He gives in. He's tired of arguing. He's still mad, still confused, still frustrated, but he finds the energy to scream his resolution once and for all. He'll die. He's going to die. He's come this far, and if this is what's expected of him, he's going to see it through. ("Not as I will, but as Thou wilt..."--not too far from how the real Jesus felt about things.)
He starts to calm down now. He's made his choice, and there's no turning back. He begins to quietly think back on all he's done, all the time he put into this task. Seems like ninety years, not three--the fourth stage, which is depression ("Then I was inspired / Now I'm sad and tired..."). Then, after he thinks about it more, he remembers that it really wasn't his choice. These really weren't his ideas. They were put into his head. He was
born for the sole purpose of dying on a piece of cold, dead wood. His frustration and anger returns, but this time, he's agreed to do what he has to do, and he's going to go through with it ("God thy will is hard, but you hold every card / I will drink your cup of poison..."--the fifth and final stage, which is acceptance). He summons up his last vestiges of energy, no longer able to scream from exhaustion, and yells, "Nail me to your cross and break me!" (think Ted Neeley). And he ends it all with "before I change my mind," which should start out angry, and lessen out, getting softer and softer, with a hint of regret.
...Can you tell I overthink this sometimes?
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
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