In the West Coast debut of The Lost Gospel of Pontius Pilate, playwright Michael Punter presents a one-man historical drama that explores the conflicted legacy of one of history’s most infamous bureaucrats.
By John Lavitt
Beverly Hills, CA (The Hollywood Times) 07-01-2025
Maxwell Caulfield brings quiet authority and unsettling complexity to the role of Pontius Pilate in this intimate production at Theatre Forty in Beverly Hills. With discipline and nuance, the veteran actor steps into the sandals of a man whose legacy remains hotly debated across historical and religious traditions.
What distinguishes The Lost Gospel of Pontius Pilate is its careful excavation of Roman historical records, offering an unsentimental glimpse into the privileged life and brutal responsibilities of Rome’s provincial governors. As playwright Michael Punter explains, “For a man at the heart of one of history’s most important events, we know very little about Pontius Pilate. The sources differ: was he a heartless monster or a humanist baffled by the overwhelming historical forces swirling around him?”
In this version—part memoir, part thriller—Punter leans toward the latter interpretation, portraying Pilate as a battle-scarred Roman, traumatized by military defeat and disillusioned by the savage politics of empire. His encounter with a strange carpenter from Galilee, however, offers a fleeting chance for redemption.
Yet, history is rarely that neat. Roman records, particularly those of Tacitus, paint Pilate as an ambitious bureaucrat with a violent streak. “Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate,” Tacitus writes in Annals 15.44, dismissing early Christianity as a “pernicious superstition.”
Indeed, Jesus was just one of tens of thousands who perished under Pilate’s brutal administration. According to Google Gemini, “Thousands more were sold into slavery, with estimates ranging from 20,000 to 97,000, according to historical sources.” Pilate’s reign ended not in quiet reflection, but in disgrace, dismissed by Emperor Tiberius after the massacre of Samaritan pilgrims.
Despite these darker truths, Punter’s script floats the controversial idea of Judas Iscariot as a collaborator working with Pilate, a claim unsubstantiated by any primary sources. Though historically suspect, this interpretation fuels the play’s tension and allows Caulfield to explore the character’s political and moral complexities.
Caulfield resists the temptation to play Pilate as a proto-Christian martyr. Instead, he offers a layered portrayal of a man born into rebellion, shaped by Rome’s military machine, and embittered by a colonial post he loathed. His recollection of Rome’s catastrophic defeat in Germany—the massacre of legions and the loss of the Golden Eagles—reveals both Pilate’s pride and his scars. It is the most realistic and believable moment in the play.
The best moments in The Lost Gospel of Pontius Pilate arise when Caulfield strips away the myth and exposes the hard truth: Pilate was a Roman, shaped by empire, driven by self-preservation, and haunted by the consequences of power. Revisionist or not, Punter’s play provides fertile ground for Caulfield’s commanding performance—and for audiences to reconsider the man behind the infamous name.
Photos by Hisato Masuyama and Sean Alquist, Courtesy of Theatre Forty
