Jamie Camilleri has been playing the role of Jesus in Good Friday pageants for 10 years and for a long time wished he could find a way to be “safely crucified” for real during the pageant.

He still plays Jesus every year with an ever-growing fervour. But, since he became a father, he has ruled out real crucifixion, a desire that had stemmed from his striving for perfection in the biblical role.

“If, a few years ago, I had found a doctor who could assure me the wounds would heal in a few months and that he could puncture my hands as safely as possible, I would have done it... for sure,” Camilleri said.

“But having children changed my mind. I want to be there for them... so I’m much more careful now.”

I still get the flogging and I feel each blow. You should see my back this morning- Jamie Camilleri

The 44-year-old theatre graduate and drama teacher has spent over a decade doing research on the figure of Christ, the Jewish culture and the story of the death of Jesus.

Camilleri does, however, get a real flogging during the annual pageant by his brother, Joseph, who plays a Roman soldier.

Camilleri says his brother knows him well and has trained to strike blows according to safety techniques that they developed together over the years.

“We use make-up and theatre prosthetics to enhance the scenes, of course, but I still get the flogging and I feel each blow. You should see my back this morning,” Camilleri told Times of Malta a couple of days after this year’s performance.

“I must get the flogging because we do the pageant on the street, inches away from people. The audience is so close to me that they’ll immediately know if I attempt to fake it,” he said.

“They’re so close they can observe everything and I can’t afford to snap out of character, not even for one moment.

“I can’t speak to other actors if I need something and there are no breaks or backstage. The stage is everywhere and so is the audience and anything that happens I must wing it.”

As its name suggests, L-Imsallab fi Triqatna (The Crucified in Our Streets) does not happen in a fixed location.

Experiment that became hugely popular

It started in 2000 as a millennium experiment. Instead of being performed on a stage, the pageant was taken to the streets of Victoria, where the actors moved from one location to another, mimicking Jesus’s several events during his final journey from Palm Sunday to his crucifixion and then resurrection.

The idea became hugely popular and has been performed annually ever since, getting bigger and more sophisticated in sets, costumes and special effects over the years.

Jesus was ecstatic, joyful, anxious and in excruciating pain, all in the span of a few hours just before he died

“The pageant returned this year after an absence of two years due to the pandemic and the response was incredible,” Camilleri said.

“People were longing for it and they flocked to see it.”

The part that went horribly wrong

Camilleri explained how playing Jesus in the middle of the street is a complex, serious and quite dangerous feat that can get you badly hurt in a myriad of ways.

“The part of the cross I carry on my shoulders is a thick, solid tree trunk, about my size in length,” he explains.

“It would crush me if I fall under it but, during the pageant, I must fall at least three times... like Jesus did.

“So, I developed a technique whereby when it’s time to fall, I shift the weight of the cross on the left side and go down on the right. That way I protect myself from the weight of the cross.

“However, that particular part of the pageant went horribly wrong a few years ago. Just as I was about to push the cross on the left, from the corner of my eye I noticed a mother walking her child in a pushchair just inches away from me, exactly where the cross was about to land.

“I shifted the weight quickly to the other side and the cross fell right on top of me. It landed on my hand badly and it immediately started to bleed.

“I tried to hide the scar under my abdomen and smudged the blood around my body, to make it look like it was all part of the make-up.”

Camilleri said his brother immediately noticed something went wrong but they had to go on till the end.

“By the crucifixion scene my hand had gone completely numb and I could not hold on to the cross,” Camilleri said.

“But, luckily, I managed to get through the final resurrection scene before I fainted and collapsed right afterwards from the pain.”

Fascination with the figure of Jesus

Camilleri said he has long been fascinated by the figure of Jesus Christ and by how ‘great and extraordinary’ he was.

He has interpreted a multitude of other characters in non-religious plays and musical theatre but rarely, if ever, has he had to interpret a character with so many deeply powerful emotions.

“Playing Jesus is trying to feel vastly different but equally intense emotions,” he said.

“Jesus was ecstatic, joyful, anxious and in excruciating pain, all in the span of a few hours just before he died. It’s challenging to get into the frame of mind of someone having a good time while having dinner with his friends but feeling deeply anxious, knowing he will be arrested and murdered soon. It’s deeply intense.

“There’s a very fine line when playing Jesus. If you overdo it, you look ridiculous, just trying to show off. But if you fake it, it becomes comical.”

Camilleri and the cast members do not go home after he is resurrected. They change into their own clothes and start taking down the sets.

“By morning, the streets are back to normal, as if nothing has happened,” Camilleri said.

“But it takes us all night. This year I locked the last garage door after stowing away all the sets at 6.30 the morning after the pageant. But we still do it because we love it.”

Before he died nine years ago, Jamie’s father used to play the part of Simon of Cyrene in the same pageant and, now, Jamie’s son, Giorgio, seems to be already intrigued by the same passion for the craft and he is already taking a part in it.