Treskift / whatever

This is me.
That is my very special book filled with awesome.
Also my very messy room.

Ahem. Shall I make this a long post? Maybe I will, only time will tell.
I have listened to the Swedish soundtrack from 2008 many times and I know it by heart. I was glad to notice they have made some changes in the lyrics. Things that have always bugged me has now been corrected. And they need to make a new recording because this version is so much better. Bad rhymes have been switched to good ones and everything has been filled with gay.

What? I mean, ehrm, yes. Judas/Jesus is nothing new to me, but this version takes the price. I thought the 2000 film version was the epitome of homosexual men lusting for each other but this one… It was already established?? Sure, there was loads of pining and lusting and angst and I-want-him-but-does-he-want-me-what-is-happening-oh-let’s-betray-the-man-I-just-realised-I-love-because-God-told-me-so, but there was also hand holding, snuggling, hugging and dancing around each other just in the first fucking scene.
I had this feeling of seeing everything I have ever only seen in my head played out before me on stage. I always thought it was just my imagination. Because no production would ever recognise that there’s something funky going on between Jesus and Judas.
But yes, this production did. Big time. And the love triangle with Mary Magdalene has never been clearer. My stomach fills with ice and fire just thinking about Judas being in the background of Mary’s I don’t know how to love him. And you can see his fingers clenching the fence and it huuuuurtsssss ;____;

(5 min pause here because I had to go over every scene that brings me (good) hurt in my poor young heart)

Ahem.Patrik Martinsson was phenomenal as Judas, and even though I didn’t really fall for his character design in the beginning he just swept me off my feet in less than 3 seconds. He just made everything about Judas so believable. You lived, rebelled, fell and finally died, with him. (I can write a whole other post about my feelings for Judas and this particular portrayal some other time)
I really like what Ola Salo and the crew has done with JSC as a whole. Because the translation is fantastic (especially with the new changes in some of the lyrics), and it feels contemporary as it never has before. Maybe just seeing/listening to it in my native language has made it more powerful. But Ola’s portrayal as Jesus bugged me for some reason. Just as with Judas it felt like something was off in the beginning, and it felt like he was too nonchalant or something? I mean, this is Jesus we’re talking about, the Jesus, son of God. Sure, here he’s also just a man, and he can get angry, and pained and has all of the human emotions and responses, but sometimes it felt like he didn’t care. And this is my own head canon Jesus popping up now, a mixture of my actual beliefs and what I prefer to see him as in JSC, but to me the essence of Jesus is that he cares. He cared so much he sacrificed his own life, and I felt we didn’t get to see as much of that as I had hoped. Also in my opinion Ola Salo’s voice is a little bit to nasal, but that’s all about preference I guess. I’m used to hearing the 2000 recording of Glenn Carter who has a much richer voice, that’s all.

I was thrilled seeing Fred Johanson as Pilate again, the same role he played in the 2000 film. I didn’t even know he was Swedish until I listened to the Swedish 2008 soundtrack last spring! But there’s no mistaking that voice. And he plays Pilate so brilliantly. /Sigh/<3 (I shall fill a post about Pilate later as well I think.)
And Johan Walhström as Herod??? I almost shit my pants because his number is so… fantastically weird. And who thought he could sing like that? Herod may not have the most complex singing part, but this was great. Herod used to freak me out when I was little (still do to some extent) but this scene was so comical I couldn’t help but to be mesmerised by it. And the bathtubs… whoever thought of that should get a freaking medal.
And we really shouldn’t be talking about Chaiaphas. His voice. So unbelievably low. He sounded almost like a machine at some points! Also creepy-as-hell Annas creeped the hell out of me. But I love him. And the random squabble going on between him and Chaiaphas in the background whenever they were on stage?? YES.
Which brings me to the one thing that really made it all magical. Whenever the actors was on stage, however minor, or in the background they were, they were always following the story playing out. Little reactions, a turn of the head, mood swings to what’s happening and it was believable.
And Mary Magdalene. I have had very conflicted feelings about this lone woman in the show over the years. Loved her, hated her and loved again only to finally accept her. She is what she is and nothing is going to change that. Gunilla Backman sang her role with grace and passion and I admire her for it. In this production I got the feeling that Mary and Judas has a lot more in common than before. You can see that they’re both dedicated to what they believe in, and what they believe in is not the road they were all heading down. Their mutual seriousness amused me greatly.

Conclusion: I need to see it again.
Maybe next time I’ll hang around the stage exit and have my book signed.

My mother is complaining about me not going to bed and I haven’t even packed my bag for Gothemburg yet and the train leaves as 08:10 tomorrow morning. Which means I have to cut this post short.