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‘The Inn at Lydda’ is subtitled ‘A Meeting of Caesar and Christ’, and that’s what John Wolfson’s mildly searching play gently ambles towards: a confrontation between the Emperor Tiberius (Stephen Boxer) and Jesus (Samuel Collings) in an inn in Judea. Tiberius is ill and has travelled from Rome in search of the famed healer; Jesus has already been crucified but is still on Earth in the weeks between the Resurrection and the Ascension.
That much is loosely inspired by the New Testament apocrypha, Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them: they’re a collection of obscure ‘pseudo-gospels’ written after the third century. In their version of New Testament history, the Emperor Tiberius has Pontius Pilate killed when he realises, much to his annoyance, that the famed Jesus of Nazareth is already dead – so destroying his last hope of recovering from creeping mental illness. Wolfson imagines that the two men did in fact meet, and it’s Jesus’s last chance to stick it to the man and speak truth to power.
As it is, the promised showdown between Jesus and Tiberius is underpowered. The journey to reach this disappointing climax is more entertaining, and Wolfson, helped by Andy Jordan’s nimble and stripped-back production, manage to communicate a knowing, lightly comic vibe without going the full ‘Life of Brian’. The three wise men (now seriously greying) make several fun appearances as a sagely chorus, and perhaps best of all is Philip Cumbus as the super-decadent Caligula, a sexual predator in the presence of both men and women.
Caligula’s chatting-up of one young male character, during which he improvises his own dance-music beats and pretends he’s in a nightclub, is the play’s most inventive moment (alongside the handing out of hummus, pitta and olives as the second act began). Why wasn’t there more of this? As it stands, it feels like ‘The Inn of Lydda’ is a play too afraid to let loose – perhaps coyed by the awe-inspiring surroundings of the intimate, candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Theatre.
One thing I will say strongly in the favour of Andy Jordan’s production: Samuel Collings’s Jesus is such a serene, calm presence, the actor should think of running mindfulness classes. He could avert wars just by turning up on the battlefield.