Village Piety becomes a World Cultural Institution
Note: The following video tells the story of the Passion Play. It runs 2 m. 40 sec, and is 16.4 MB long. On a slow connection it can take ten minutes to download!
Every ten years, in fulfillment of the vows of their forefathers, the
townspeople of Oberammergau stage a
Passion Play. The play takes five hours
running from 2:30 to 10:30 PM with a three hour break for
supper. In 2010 there will be over 100 performances come rain or come shine. The
audience and the orchestra are under cover, but the stage is open to the sky.
The
theater holds 4,700 spectators on a single level. The acoustics are
excellent and the whole stage is visible from every seat. The stage
itself is huge. In some scenes there can be 1,000 actors plus animals on
stage. It has a chamber in the center with
tableaux vivants between the acts. At that time the 64-voice
chorus lines up across the stage to provide the choral exegesis. At
other times the chorus may sing from stage left or stage right. The
theater is not used for any other presentations between decade years.
The play is best seen as a worship service or liturgical drama.
The
Text
The play is put on by about 2,000 citizens of Oberammergau. You must have been born in the village or have lived there for twenty years to take part. It is, of course, in German. With your ticket you receive your copy of the script. Start on one side, and it's in German, turn it over, and it's in English. No other languages are available.
I had initially expected a reproduction of a medieval passion play, but each season the play is reworked to better tell the story of the Passion to the current audience. In 2010 the script was reviewed by Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish authorities. It shows Jesus as a rabbi attempting to purify Judaism and getting into trouble with the religious authorities who turn him over to a pretty nasty Pilate in order to be rid of him. Here is a sample of the script from the cleansing of the temple, the last straw for Caiaphas and crew.
The Play
 The Chorus and a Tableau Vivant |
 Entry into Jerusalem |
 Last Supper. They've used the same table since 1780. |
 Crucifixion. Actually, by this time it's gotten dark. |