PASSION PLAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1922, Page 4

PASSION PLAY.

AFTER 12 YEARS. (From Richard Capell, The i Music- Critic). OBERAMMBRGAi;.. Bavaria, May 10. i One of the undoubted great curiosi- • ties of Old Europe, the Passion Play j 1 of Oberamniergau, is this summer once again, after 12 years, to draw the world and his wife to this out-of-the-way Bavarian village, with its toyshop i houses frowned down upon bv walls of high hills, still snow-capped to-day, 1 through wo are broiled in mid-sum- ’ merlike sunshine. Tho lirst performance proper of the I Passion Play is next Sunday. Tu- . morrow there will he a public re-, hears id. Really it is a. mediaeval relic, this daylong representation by a more or less naive peasantry of our Lord’s trial and Crucifixion, despite the fact that the actual Obcianimcrgau play is only 300 years old and despite, the fig mo- j deni business organisation involved in 1 dealing with 2-10,000 visitors. For the | 1910 performance 200.0(H) visitors; came. j There was a time when every village I in the land had its Passion Play. The exclusive use of Latin in the (Tiurehes made this the popular way of realising the' Gospel story. Oherammergati was addicted with pestilence 300 years ago, and vowed to enact the Passion of Christ once every 10 years. The tenacity of these dour highlanders t" their vow ensured the Play's survival here, while the custom died out or was suppressed elsewhere. WONDROUS CHEAPNESS. The romantic scene of this Bavarian highland village has helped. The I Play’s history must, have been very different., say in the hideous plain of North Prussia. Nowadays it is the mainstay of Obe-' rammergau. and school, hospital, and all sorts of village improvements come from the Passion Play profits, which at the last festival amounted to more than £IO,OOO. Visitors to the first festival since the war are on the one hand hnrrnsspd liy new Tangled passport formaUties, especially numerous in Bavaria., while, on the other hand, they benefit by the wondrous cheapness of everything. Seats in the theatre, which used to be 1(1;;.. are now (oil times dearer for Germans. but owing to Hie rate of exchange cost the British _ visitor only Is Bd. Luncheon at a. first-class Munich hotel cost Is fid., and a large glass of beer Id. Nearly 1.000 villagers take part in the Play. F’or the third time Anton Lang, tiie local potter, is in the role of Jesus. F'roiu mv window I have just seen him. hoarded and long-haired, go out and back into bis toyshop house, lie is the sou of a former llerod. LONG-! I AIR El) MEN. Tho Virgin, always played bv an unlit;:! lied girl, is this year -Me l lha \oit. a scrious-fared. dark-eyed and darkhaired of 21. who in the war was an Army nurse in Mnubeuire. The new Mary Magdalene is Paula Bend!, daughter of a former St. John, and the new Pilate is the sou of the celebrated Mayor who before I.ang was the .Jesus of the Passion Play. Ohcramniet'gail's young nidi have tjoi been able lo have thcii hair nit since 1 demobilisation ill anticipation of this festival. They and the peasants in mountain dress give the st reels a quaint look. The streets themselves resound to hammering and sawing. | while everything possible is being given I a. new coat of paint, the whole resembling Drury l.ime stage a,May or two before a new production. ' Yesterday a preliminary perfoi m im e ’ was given for the local peasantry, who : I during the rest of the summer will i have their hands full with tourists. The theatre has -I,OlM> seats, but it i 'aid that at this performance there weir three persons to cadi scat, excepting ' that of the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich.