OBERAMMERGAU’S PASSION PLAY - FAITH IN GOD, A VILLAGE’S VOW AND ITS EXPRESSION OF FAITH.
Smitten By Faith Issue # 00045 July 27th 2022
In Germany, a little Bavarian village called Oberammergau is home to 5,000 people and is nestled amidst the spectacular mountains of the Ammergau Alps - a perfect setting for the most incredible world famous live performance for the past 400 years - the Passion Play about the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The villagers of Oberammergau have faithfully performed the Passion Play on the 10th year of every round decade since 1633 to fulfil a vow to God made by its villagers that if God would save their village from any more terrible deaths from the bubonic plague sweeping through Europe, the villagers would honour this miracle by performing the story of the Passion of Christ. Little did they know then that this vow which was their expression of faith in God in 1633 would be continuously renewed - almost unbroken - for more than 400 years by generations of their children and children’s children. In fact, except for 1870 and 1940 ( see below ), the villagers of Oberammergau would faithfully keep and renew this vow, performing the Passion Play every 10 years. This was one village’s expression of faith in God ; that God was with them and so, the village would keep and continues to keep their promise.
“ The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid “. Psalm 118.6
Some pictures of the village of Oberammaergau taken when I arrived on a cloudy morning. See the spectacular mountains in then background and the wall frescoes about the passion of Christ which almost every house is proudly decorated with. See too the posters about the Passion Play.
In 2020, the Covid Pandemic hit Europe and with border closures and travel restrictions, Oberammergau had no choice but to postpone the 2020 Passion Play. Then, in 2022 with global travel beginning again as we all learn to live with Covid, the decision was made by the villagers to perform, in 2022, the postposed 2020 Passion Play. This they did since from May 2022 and will continue to do every day ( except for Mondays and Wednesdays ) until October 2022.
In April 2022, I started tentatively planning my husband Terry’s and my trip to Europe this year - after almost 3 years. I had read about the reinstatement of the Passion Play with incredible excitement. I have been many times to Bavaria through the past years but never made it to the Passion Play because of the timing of the particular decades when it was performed. Now, I realized that the COVID Pandemic had finally made this possible. We would be in Europe in 2022 and Terry and I could actually fulfil our dream to go to Oberammergau and see the Passion Play !
Terry and I managed to sneak a quick picture in front of the empty stage before the crowds ( 4,000 of them ) streamed in.
And so on July 24th 2022 , with amazing summer weather ( perhaps even too hot ), here we were at the Oberammergau Passion Play - with ringside seats - attending the Passion Play at the special purpose built theatre ( built in 1900 ) that seats more than 4,000 people !
This theatre which was built in 1900 is huge with amazing acoustics. You can see the incredible domed roof structure in the picture on the left.
The performance starts at 2:30 pm sharp and ends at 10:30 pm. There is a break of 3 hours ( from 5 pm to 8 pm for dinner ) when in our case, we could walk back to our nearby hotel room for a rest and our pre-ordered dinner. The Passion Play is performed entirely in German but for foreigners, we are all given a book with a wonderful English translation of the entire script so we can follow the play throughout. The play has been revised a few times since 1870. It is not a verbatim rendition of the passion of Christ from the New Testament. Nor is the Passion play meant to be a ‘religious’ event. But in spite of the poetic license of the dramatization, there were no theological errors and in fact, the playwright, the director and the producers all consulted theologians and scholars quite carefully here. What is clear is that one can have no doubt about the powerful emotional effect of watching the Passion Play performed by so many hundreds of actors, the entire choir and the full orchestra accompany them. that their hearts and souls were with the play. The audience sat quietly. You could hear a pin drop. The audience of believers and non-believers; Catholics, Christians, all faiths and some who came out of curiosity. Some faces were rapt with joy to hear the words of Jesus’ teachings dramatised on Oberammergau’s big stage with its flawless acoustics. Many faces were wet with tears during the Crucifixion scene. A friend of ours said to me that he too “would have been reduced to a weeping pile”. When the play ended, we all streamed out of the great theatre quietly. No one spoke. I understood why none of the 1,000 strong cast members took a curtain call and bow when the Play ended. They could not. How could they ? It must have been even more emotional for them to be performing the play. The audience left with hope and courage in our hearts. Meditative and reflective. The message of faith of the villagers of Oberammergau had been clearly and beautifully transmitted.
Some scenes from the Passion Play 2022. You can see that the top 3 blurry pictures of the crucifixion ( taken by stealth ) are not great. But it does give you an impression of the incredible scale of this production. The last 2 pictures which I ‘borrowed’ from the Oberammergau website are very clear - of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey and Jesus at the last supper. I included them so you can see how wonderful the casting and costuming was.
The 2,300 production team and cast included a full orchestra, a more than 200 strong choir with soloists whose voices soared and thrilled in accompaniment to the amazing musical score, wonderful actors , village children and even animals - donkeys, camels, sheep, pigeons. Wow indeed ! At some scenes - there were a few hundred people at one time on the enormous stage ! An interesting vignette to share with you. It is mandatory that ALL the actors in the play must have been born in Oberammergau and must have lived there for at least 20 years. Amazing and quite a commitment indeed.
A quick snapshot of part of the gigantic choir !
The Passion Play begins with music as its full orchestra begins and its more than a hundred-strong choir of village men and women and soloists come out to the stage bursting into song - with a grand Orotorio which introduces, with a segment of the Old Testament, each dramatic scene from the passion of Christ. An artistic juxtaposition of the Old and New Testament. For me, watching each of the actual scenes of the dramatization of the one week of Christ’s passion was heart-rending. Very difficult to watch. I tried to meditate instead thinking how lucky mankind is; how fortunate to be loved so much by God that he gave us his Son and changed the fate of mankind forever - when Jesus suffered, died and rose again to bring us salvation and eternal life.
Nothing like Oberammergau’s Passion play exists anywhere in the world. Every 10th year from May to October for the past 400 years, they have performed every day ( except Mondays and Wednesday’s ). The performance has only been totally cancelled only twice - in 1870 ( a special decision to revise the script ) and in 1940 ( the Second World War ). Postponement also happened only twice. In 2020, it was the COVID which brought it to 2022 just as in 1920, the Spanish flu postponed it to 1922. History repeating itself ?
The Passion Play is about FAITH, hope, salvation and LOVE. The performance moves not just the thousands of villagers involved with producing the play but also the thousands of visitors who are fortunate enough to come and watch. I never doubted that it would be very difficult to watch on a stage the enactment and pathos of the passion of Christ - especially one captured with such stark realism and drama as that performed in Oberammergau; a re-telling of the suffering, Crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a celebration of our God and his boundless love for us. ___________________________________________________________________________
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