Seán Walsh: A scene from Pilate Under Pressure

PILATE’S WIFE DEEP IN THOUGHT…

ZARA, HER MAID-IN-WAITING, ENTERS.

ZARA           

My Lady?… So forlorn?…

WOMAN      

Ah, Zara… I was a long way away… What now?

ZARA:          

They have started out for Calvary, my lady.

WOMAN:     

Oh-hh…

ZARA:          

So weak is the Jew, he fell under the weight of the crossbeam.

WOMAN:     

They are making him carry it?

ZARA:          

No more. The Centurion singled out a foreigner in the crowd, forced him to the task.

WOMAN:     

Foreigner?

ZARA:          

He is darker than the Jews.

WOMAN:     

Black?

ZARA:          

Indeed, my lady. A visitor, perhaps, passing through Jerusalem –

WOMAN:     

And now he goes to Calvary, shouldering a crossbeam –

ZARA:          

Albeit reluctantly.

WOMAN:     

Strange. Strangers…

ZARA:          

My lady?

WOMAN:     

Is it not strange, Zara, that the only ones who helped – tried to help – the Galilean are strangers to these shores? My husband – at least at first. The Centurion. I, in my own way. You, after a fashion. And now a black man, from afar…

ZARA:          

I fail to follow, my lady?

WOMAN:     

Each with one thing in common: we are, all of us, non-believers, pagans…

Seán Walsh – A scene from PILATE UNDER PRESSURE, my drama set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday… from a Roman perspective.

Copies available on Amazon.com paperback and kindle.

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