Caiaphas is one of the voices of authority in the drama of the Verges Procession. His intervention in the Sanhedrin helps set Jesus’s arrest in motion, while in the streets the character sustains the tension surrounding the condemnation. The role also has a history of learning and succession that participants’ memories help explain.
Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin in the script
In the Sanhedrin scene published in 2011, the action begins in Caiaphas’s palace. The priest calls Malcos and asks him to summon the council. The text introduces Annàs, Abdaró and Benjamí, described in Malcos’s speech as the three wise Pharisees; the following stage direction adds other priests. The officer, Judas, the Jueus and the manages also take part.
This is the composition of the local scene documented on pages 59–60. It should not be confused with a complete reconstruction of the historical Sanhedrin: the theatrical text selects and arranges characters to move the performance forward.
Malcos acts as Caiaphas’s servant and carries out his instructions. Their relationship moves the action from the priest’s decision to the summoning and involvement of other characters. Caiaphas thus connects the performance in the Plaça with the drama that continues in the streets.
Learning the role by listening
Pere Fuster explains that, when he began playing Caiaphas, he already knew the role from hearing it year after year. His memory shows a way of learning that goes beyond receiving a sheet of verses: listening, repeating and observing how another participant spoke them before an audience.
In his account, the previous performer had noticed Pere following the verses as he recited. Pere remembers that recognition as a sign of a future handover. The predecessor’s name and the exact year are not sufficiently established in the available material to be included as certain facts.
A handover remembered under Jordi Gelà
Pere places his arrival in the role during a period when Jordi Gelà was director. He explains that he was in Paris when his son told him about a selection for Caiaphas. After his return, Gelà brought him the text to study and, at a meeting in the Casa de Cultura, expressed confidence that he would play the character well.
This is Pere’s personal account of his handover. It does not establish a selection system valid for every period or show that the role was a hereditary right.
A point of reference for the Jueus
Josep Maria Llach i Grande remembers Caiaphas helping lead the Jueus during a period of informal organisation. The character therefore had a dramatic presence, while the performer could also provide a point of reference for other participants.
This dual role remains a memory of a particular period. It is not equivalent to a formally regulated position and does not prove that every performer of Caiaphas has always taken on the same responsibility.
The change of position with Lluís Llach
Pere attributes to Lluís Llach the proposal that Caiaphas should move at the head of the procession, accompanied by four boys lighting his way. In his memory, the reason was dramaturgical: the character had secured the condemnation before Pilate, and his position should express that victory within the story.
Pere also recalls the physical effort of this new way of walking through the village. The proposal and its explanation remain an attributed account, without assigning an exact year to the change or treating that arrangement as an unchanging present-day rule.
Sources
La Processó de Verges. Text de l’obra (Diputació de Girona, 2011), Sanhedrin scene, pp. 59–60.
Interviews with Pere Fuster and Josep Maria Llach i Grande within the Memòria Viva La Processó project, analysed as part of this research. Learning, succession and the change of position are attributed memories, rather than an exhaustive list of performers.
