After the collective joy of El Ram, the performance in the square centres on a conversation: Jesus meets the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well. Water, a pitcher and the spoken word create a scene that contrasts with the crowd scenes.
The dialogue at Jacob’s Well
Tired from his journey, Jesus stops to rest. The woman comes to fetch water, and their encounter becomes a dialogue about thirst, life and the recognition of Jesus. The well is the scene’s visual centre, but its dramatic meaning depends chiefly on the verses and the relationship between the performers.
The promise of living water gives an everyday need a spiritual meaning. After her initial surprise, the Samaritan Woman listens and recognises the man speaking to her. Her appearance introduces a pause for conversation before the Last Supper, betrayal and arrest.
The women who have played the Samaritan Woman
The history of this role also survives in its actresses’ memories. Mercè Roviras Bofill recalls Carles Perpinyà asking her to play the Samaritan Woman when she was eighteen. She felt too young, but the director encouraged her to accept. She remembers taking part for about five years; that recollection cannot replace a complete record of casts.
Maite Poch Roviras, who had also taken part in El Ram and played one of the Samaritan Woman’s little angels, recalls playing this character for eighteen years. These accounts reveal different paths through the same role, without establishing an annual succession that remains undocumented.
Preparing the character and the scene
Mercè explains that Carles worked with actors on breathing, vocal intensity and gesture. Learning the text also meant learning how to deliver it. Maite recalls a period when the Samaritan Woman and Veronica had their hair done at her family home, where her mother worked as a hairdresser. Preparations later moved to the Casa de Cultura. This is a remembered change, without a precise timetable for the move.
The well also requires practical work. Pere Maspoch recalls the mechanism used in the scene and expresses a wish for the well to be more attractive and practical. This is a personal proposal for improvement, not a reform documented as completed.
Sources and continuity
Performance text: La Processó de Verges, 2011 edition, scene of the Samaritan Woman. Interviews with Mercè Roviras Bofill, Maite Poch Roviras and Pere Maspoch in the Memòria Viva La Processó project, analysed as part of this research.
For the dialogue’s adaptations and revisions, see the history of the texts.
Photos: Albert Barnosell | Instagram
