The Passion Play

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 967, 9 May 1930, Page 9

The Passion Play

OBERAMMERGAU REHEARSAL Pious Fervour of Players OLD VOW FULFILLED EVERY DECADE WITH impressive piety and complete sincerity, the inhabitants of the Bavarian village of Oberammergau are feverishly rehearsing the passion play which is to begin on Sunday next for a season of 35 performances. The presentation of this passion play every 10 years is the fulfilment of a vow made by the ancestors of the present players 298 years ago.

United I*.A. —By Telegraph—Copyright

(Received noon.)

OBERAMMERGAU (Bavaria), Thurs. Today the villagers of this tiny Bavarian town again showed the devotion with which they fulfil the solemn vow made by their ancestors 298 years ago—when the plague was raging—to represent the Passion of Christ every decade. The final rehearsal in a new theatre in preparation for Sunday’s official opening was witnessed by the entire Bavarian Government, the Papal Nuncio and celebrities from all over the world. In fluttering costumes, the players crucified the figure on the cross amid drizzling rain and dark scurrying clouds over the towering mountains made a most effective sight. Every third inhabitant of the village participates in the performance. There are 550 on the stage, in the choir or in the orchestra. Two hundred persons act as stage hands. Despite the financial complications involved in presenting the play in modern conditions—the new theatre alone cost £50,000 —there is every evidence of the original religious intention being maintained in spirit as well as in form. There are 5,500 beds for strangers in the village of 2,100 inhabitants. In all 35 performances will be given. A journalist spoke to Alois Lang who is playing the part of Christus. He is a gentle loveable man and was tired with the lohg rehearsal. “It is an anxious work," he said sadly. “I do unpaid rehearsals all the winter evenings, and in the daytime X do wood-carving. “Now I have a leading part, I hope I get a good price, for even a Christus must live. We have 14 boarders tomorrow.” “He gets no rest,” broke in his stout wife, who was accompanied by five dachshunds. Half way down the village the High Priest Caiphas was shoeing a horse. He is a big, handsome fellow with a black beard. “No one loves Ciaphas,” he said. “I have played the part twice, but my son plays the angel at the tomb, which is a better part.” The passion piay is staged every ten years by the inhabitants of the village c-f Oberammergau in fulfilment of a

vow made by the inhabitants in 1634. It was staged regularly every decade up to 1910. Up to IS3O it was presented in front of the church; it was then removed to a meadow at the end of the picturesque little village. There the stage was open, framed in a background of fir-clad hills The auditorium, which was entirely covered in after IS9O. held 400 seats, arranged in tiers, and cost £IO.OOO to build. Thisyear, however, the passion play is being staged in a theatre which was specially built. Elaborate preparations are made for many months, and even for years ahead, by the villagers, most of whom follow the simple calling of carving in :vory and wood. Men grow and train flowing black beards for the play to add realism to

their parts, and the presentation Is surrounded by intense religious fervour and remarkable piety. The leading parts in the play are handed through several generations of the various families and in some circles are made the subject almost of a life study. Alois Lang, who plays the part of Christus, is a woodcarver. For a number of years this part was played by Anton Lang, a senior member of the family. Anni Ruiz, who plays Mary, is a 23-year-old typiste, Hansi Preisinger takes Magdalen, Guido Mayr will play Judas for the second time, and Peter, the Apostle, will be represented by Peter Rendl.