Passion Play of Oberammergau

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 29

Passion Play of Oberammergau

Cast Rehearsing for Century-Old Drama THREE CENTURIES OF PREPARATION The cast has been settled and rehearsals are in full swing for next year’s . performance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau, which will attract many thousands of visitors, flocking to the little village in the Bavarian uplands to watch the peasants enact again, as they have done each decade for three centuries, not as a theatrical show, but as a solemn act of worship, their Scriptural drama. At other places in Central Europe, especially in Bohemia and Switzerland, such plays still survive or have been revived. Scriptural folk dramas descending from the Miracle Plays and Mysteries of the Middle Ages. But none can compare in impressiveness and beauty with the famous one of Oberammergau. To hosts, whether they shared the creed of the players or not, it has brought illumination and inspiration. Toward the close of the Thirty Years’ War that terrible epidemic, the Black Death, ravaged the land. Villages around were smitten by the plague. According to the old chronicle, in one place there were but two households in which both man and wife were spared. So the 12 elders of Oberammergau took counsel together and appointed watchmen to guard every road and path and mountain track, keeping out strangers who might carry infection, drawing a cordon around the village to exclude the scourge. It was in vain. Karl Sehussler. of Oberammergau, covetous of the high wages elsewhere in the dearth of labour owing to the plague, was reaping the harvest in another part of Bavaria. When he ] would have returned his way was bar- } red by the sentinels. Longing to see wife and children, he eluded the watchmen under cover of darkness and reached his home. But the seeds of the plague were in him. In two days he was dead and the dread disease was raging in the village. Eightyfour were carried off in three weeks. A SOLEMN PLEDGE On the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, October 28, 1633, the elders summoned all the inhabitants together to make supplication for aid in their misery, solemnly pledging themsejves to exhibit the Passion Play every ten years. From that day, according to the chronicle, the pestilence abated and swiftly ceased, so that no more died and the sick i-ecovered. Nor did it ever return to Oberammergau. The first performance took place in the churchyard the following year. The earliest text of the play extant is a copy “revised with care and newly transcribed” of 1662. This remained In use until 1750. Meanwhile, after 1674 ! the play was performed again in 1680, j and thereafter at the beginning of j each decade. A. new text was sup-i plied by a member of the ancient I monastery of Ettal, higher up the vai- j ley. Miracle Plays in their decline do- \ generated into vulgar burlesque. The association of ribald foolery with sacred themes was offensive, and the authorities restricted the performance. In March, 1770, the ecclesiastics of Munich petitioned the Elector to forbid the plays entirely, protesting that •“the greatest mysery of our holy religion was no fit subject for the stage.” News of the prohibition did not reach Oberammergau, secluded among the mountains, until two performances had already taken place. The villagers at once appealed to the Elector, pleading they might be permitted to fulfil the vow of their ancestors. Again and j again they appealed. To their third application the brusque reply was returned: “Petition finally refused.” In ten years’ time, however, they secured exemption from tlie general prohibition. ENTIRELY A LOCAL PRODUCT The text w r as not absolutely free from offence, with some crudity and burlesque that was a relic of a ruder age. Rochus Dedler, a schoolmaster of Oberammergau, rewrote it in ISIS, when the play was specially performed between the ten-year periods in thanksgiving for Napoleon’s downfall. He removed these objectionable traits and brought the dialogue into closer conformity with the Biblical narrative. He also composed the sweet and simple airs for the orchestra which are still used. So that everything —the text, the actors, the costumes, the scenery, the music, the orchestra —is entirely a local product. In 1830, owing to the growing numbers who came to see the play, the performances were transferred to an open-air stage in the meadows. Again in 1850 the text was revised, this time by the parish priest, Josef Aloys Daisenberger, and only slight changes have since been made. Daisenberger condensed the prolix dialogues, modernised the language, and arranged the episodes with fine dramatic skill. He was a man of culture and loving devotion to his little flock, those 35 years among them left a permanent impression on the village. Interest in foreign countries increased, and the enthusiastic description of the performances in 1850, with Daisenberger’s new text and arrangements, by Devrient, an eminent German critic, especially attracted attention. In IS7O the outbreak of the war with France interrupted the performances, which were repeated the following year in thanksgiving for peace. The auditorium was enlarged from time to time, and in 1900 was covered in, seating 4,000 persons. Now there is accommodation for 6,000 spectators. In 1920 there were no performances because of the impoverishment of the war, which left no funds. They were given two years later, but entailed abject poverty on the villagers. No thought of profit actuates them. The expense is naturally heavy, but the price for seats ridiculously low. The actors receive only a sum equal to what they would have earned at theirusual tasks. If there is any surplus, it is devoted partly to road-building and other improvements for the comfort of visitors and partly to charity. The most tempting offers, to perform in America and elsewhere, are rejected, and constant attempts to induce the players to become film-actors ! fail. They will not commercialise their Passion Play. A LACK OF ARTIFICE There are some SOO players, all natives, and the parts are assigned by a committee, which considers only the fitness of each. The children learn

the parts as soon as they can speak, | with - pious hopes of being chosen, ■ About 150 of them appear in the “tab- ! leaux vivants.” There is no artifice, no j grease-paint or powder. Hair and i beards are grown to suit the character j portrayed. The stage is in two parts, the upper j one used for the Temple, the Garden I of Olives, and some other scenes, but ] especially for the "tableaux” of sym- j bolic or prophetic incidents from the j Old Testament, sometimes including 250 adults as well as the children, introducing each act, and illustrating! the unity of the Scriptures. On the j lower stage are the streets of Jerusa-1 lem, with palm trees here and there j among the flat-roofed Eastern houses, j The play begins at eight in the morning and with an interval for the midday meal lasts until evening. Each act is preceded by a prologue, delivered to music by the leader of a chorus of some fifty men and women in bright-hued robes and with golden coronets about their flowing hair, who take up the chant. The choral ode is followed by a “tableau” on the upper stage, and then the act begins. Before and after the Crucifixion the chorus appears in black cloaks. The acting is always superb, for it is utterly sincere, and the fruit of years of brooding over the Gospel story and constant practice. No description can convey an adequate conception of the impressiveness and beauty of the whole performance. It is packed with spirtual significance for all, whatever faith they hold. Appearing \v it h Clem Dawe in the musical comedy “Love Lies,” is Bobby Gordon, a popular London comedian, who has understudied Jack Buch anan in the English performance of “Sunny.” Mr. Gordon is young and good-looking, and it will he seen that with Mr. Dawe in his first straightout comedy role, and a superb supporting company, “Love Lies” prom ises to be a revelation in stage production, acting, dancing and singing.