This play defies thousands of years of faithful adherence to Christian belief. Its outrageous claims damage the Faith and the play ought to be banned. Where do I start with criticism?

Firstly, to depict the mother of Jesus – Mary – as having been made pregnant by a guest to Joseph’s household is pure heresy. Every faithful Christian knows Mary’s pregnancy was an Immaculate Conception, making Jesus the one and only Son of God. Then to suggest, as the play does, that Jesus was born in his mother’s bed in Nazareth again counteracts the Nativity in Bethlehem. The significance of the Saviour of the World entering life in the humblest of circumstances seems to be lost on the author of this play.

My second major criticism is related to the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem. He was welcomed as a Prophet, the crowds casting palm leaves on the road in front of his passage into the City of David. Yet the author implies that he came optimistically expecting to turn around the attitudes of the Jewish hierarchy, and all Jews in general. Christian belief holds that he knew he was entering the city as a Lamb to the slaughter, to complete God’s mission for him on earth before he returned to the right hand of the Father. To say he came with optimism and then was outraged by what he saw in the Temple, ignored by his Disciples, and finally betrayed yet saw it as a matter of principle that he stand up to the Sanhedrin again is not what Christians believe.

Thirdly and most importantly, the heretical description of the crucifixion as having been faked by Pilat because Jesus and his new Christian movement were seen as an allies likely to divide the Hebrew race strikes at the heart of what all Christians believe, and the very nature of the Faith itself. Mature Christians believe he died on the Cross, was taken to Joseph’s tomb and then ascended into Heaven, having come back from the dead to visit the Disciples and others before returning to his Father God. The conversation with Saul on the road to Damascus is pure speculation.

I cannot see why such assertions could possibly create new members of the Church, as the author claims in his foreword, when what is written is so directly an antithesis of Christian Belief. Ban this publication, and do it quickly before more damage is done.

Claudia et Pontius is a thoughtful dramatization of the events surrounding the first Easter.  It depicts Jesus surviving the cross and dying a lingering death after removal from the tomb. It is an examination of conflicts, of challenges to the belief of one God verse many, of political power granting the chosen ones the right to impose their beliefs on others, to determine life or death, of conflict in beliefs between married partners, of choosing to do what will protect the establishment verses your own inner assessment of what is right.  Is it an attack on the belief and teachings of Christianity, or more importantly an examination of the same conflicts that people face on a daily basis? MH, Washington DC

Thanks from Bristol.

Admire the clarity of thought, and the credibility of your plot.