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A Play of Life
and Death,
Promised in a moment of mortal threat – so began the
history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the
middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of
suffering and death from the plague, the Oberammergauers
swore an oath that they would perform the "Play of the
Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus
Christ” every ten years. At Pentecost 1634, they
fulfilled their pledge for the first time on a stage
they put up in the cemetery above the fresh graves of
the plague victims. In the year 2010, the Community of
Oberammergau will for the 41st time be performing the
play they have preserved throughout the centuries with
singular continuity – often against resistance. Passion
plays – performed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages,
then banned from the cities in the 16th century – were,
after experiencing a heyday in Baroque-Catholic Southern
Germany, forbidden there, as well in the middle of the
18th century in the wake of the age of enlightenment.
Oberammergau alone kept the tradition alive. Was it a
sense of obligation to the pledge? Or was it the
theological support of the nearby Ettal and Rottenbuch
Monasteries that made the difference? In any event, the
people succeeded in acquiring a privilege from the lord
elector and thus rescued the fascinating undertaking of
depicting the Passion of Jesus on the stage into the
19th century.
A
Man of "Flesh and Blood”
Today, the churches appreciate the possibility of
telling of Jesus as a man "of flesh and blood” in a way
that helps all mankind to relate to him, as is the case
in the play. To this day, elements from the various
stages of development throughout the play’s 350-year
history still cling to the text (Othmar Weis/Joseph A.
Daisenberger), the stage and the music (Rochus Dedler).
However, the Oberammergau Passion Play is particularly
characterized by the musically illustrated tableaux
vivants inserted into the story. These comparisons with
moments in Israel’s history of faith are intended to
guide the spectator toward a sympathetic understanding
of what Jesus wants, things for which he has provoked
resistance and which occur below the surface of the
drama of this seemingly pointless failure. While, on the
one hand Oberammergau looks to its tradition when
accomplishing the task of telling "The Greatest Story
ever Told”, nevertheless each generation will find it
impossible to tell it any other way than in the horizon
of its own history of life and faith. Living, authentic
drama has nothing to do with clichés and calls for a
personal approach to the subject matter.
The
Passion Play Today
In this spirit, during a work period of several years,
the text and music were fundamentally revised, new
settings and costumes designed and a new production
created in countless rehearsals. Now, more than 2,000
Oberammergauers, actors, singers, instrumentalists and
stage technicians, in approximately six hours of playing
time bring to the stage those events Christianity
regards as its central source of life and hope. |
