The Second Fall, associated with the plaça de l’Onze de Setembre, is one of the Verges Procession’s most active collective scenes. The hostility of the Jueus, the manages, the Daughters of Jerusalem and Simon of Cyrene create a scene that requires both words and coordination.
Movement and speech in the 2011 script
The 2011 edition opens this episode with the Daughters of Jerusalem. When Jesus falls, the Jueus form a ring of jumps and insults around the cross, while the manages form another outside it, with trumpets and drums. The text places the sounds, entrances and verses within a shared sequence.
The harshness of the tormentors’ speeches reinforces the hostility. The Daughters of Jerusalem introduce lamentation and a response from Jesus, so this is not merely physical action or a scene without dialogue.
Simon of Cyrene and the weight of the cross
In this episode’s second scene, published on pp. 126–127, a tormentor seeks Simon of Cyrene to help carry the cross. The tormentors offer Simon payment and express concern that Jesus might not reach Calvary alive. Simon also accepts because he feels pity: the persecutors’ interests and the helper’s compassion are different motives.
This is Simon’s place in the 2011 script. Serrà described him at the Third Fall in the 1996 performance. The difference documents change; an older book should not be corrected as though it had observed the same later version.
A theatrical idea needs a way to work
Josep Maria Llach i Grande recalls that, when the Second Fall was being prepared, the initial idea had not sufficiently resolved its practical execution. He explains that several participants worked with the director, made adjustments and reached an agreement.
According to his account, the result became a written protocol, worked well and remained in use for many years. This memory shows how shared knowledge could be committed to writing. The document has not yet been located in the consulted material: we do not reproduce its clauses or attribute its authorship to Lluís Llach.
Josep Maria mentions an agreement between three parties, but the passage does not unambiguously identify all three. We therefore do not list them as though we had the meeting’s minutes.
A scene that has changed
Serrà describes the Second Fall of 1996 without the dialogue later included in the 2011 text. That edition’s epilogue explains the intention to extend the scene by adding speech. A published script, a description of one edition and participants’ memories are complementary sources with different dates and limits.
The journey continues with the Third Fall. For the characters’ work, see the Jueus and Jesus.
Sources
La Processó de Verges (2011), pp. 123–127 and epilogue, p. 144. Màriam Serrà, Verges i la processó que no es veu (1998), description of 1996. Interview with Josep Maria Llach i Grande in the Memòria Viva La Processó project, analysed as part of this research.
