AT OBERAMMERGAU

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 114, 11 November 1930, Page 55

AT OBERAMMERGAU

I&S&KM PLAY'S MME/E:

TOURIST &XW

Tie last performance of the Passion 3?lay at Oberammergau took place a jfsew weeks ago. It is significant of fjhe point raised in this article by P. G. ftordoii Walker in "The Daily Telegraph" that the proceeds have been Sufficient to repay a- loan of ©100,000 Sor building the new theatre. English people have been deceived xrholesale about the Passion Play. There have been rumours that it is to lie given, again before the usual ten , years are by, and, anyhow,' a warning iiannot be out of place. As the work of a small village, the play is monumental. Oberammergau has only 2000 souls, and practically all, apart from the old women, who were indignant over their omission, have taken some part. That the village, lying off the beaten tracks, could have attracted no fewer than 300,000 visitors js a fact that earns the highest praise fox its enthusiasm and propaganda. But with all this its bait is only a Milage play. If- people went _ realising this, no harm was done; bufcif they went expecting a play with significance, raising valuable emotions and imparting religious experience, they were dis- ,- Appointed. The whole affair has become eomjnerciaL This does mot imply that it has thereby lost its sincerity. An. 1 $.ctor is just as artificial and may be as linoere whether he is paid or not. There ■were, ■ however, more results of this ' commercialisation than a possible ■ hypocrisy (which, after all, only means acting). The chief is that the theatre • has been made three, or possibly four, ' times too large. In the first quarter ,of the house one is exposed to the • weather, but can hear all But the most - mumbled, ■enunciation. Further back one is sheltered, but hears very little. Additional difficulties in the way of - winning the co-oporation of the audience were the daylight, the enormous ' stretch of time on seats which becomes, after four or five hours, excruciating, ' and the constant intervention of the chorus. Such obstacles demand the ■ finest acting of a fine text. THE TEXT-ACTING. First, then, about the text. It could • not bear criticism. It is inordinately • long. It lasts ten hours, with a two- ' hour break, and could easily be compressed into about four. There are seas •of unnecessary talk. The Pharisees, in making'their iniquity quite dear to the audience, repeat themselves inter- . minably, and have indeed, a big- ' ger part than the Christians. Frankly, most of the writing, except of the passages out of the Bible, was childish, especially the verses which the Prologue has to speak and the Chorus sing. These last, with corresponding music, introduce a sort of "Hymns, Ancient and Modern" paralysis. Secondly, about the acting. It failed excusably to surmount those huge difficulties. The staging and production, however, were throughout beyond praise, above all the crowd scenes. The individual acting failed. Christ's part was the best played; beside him only Caiaphas and Pilate could be consistently heard. Some, notably Mary Magdalene, John, and Judas had a maddening pitch of voice. Judas was, indeed, although the worst actor, yet a type of tße acting. He had a few well-trained gestures and 'staggers, "which he deployed with the courage only a bad actor knows. The Crueifixian. scene naturally failfed from an over-reaching realism. In the last hour and a half the visitor could get all out of the play it could give, and for the minimum of discomfort match the boast of his American rivals that lie has seen Oberammer- ■ gau. But if he stayed away, lie would, with most, of the Germans themselves, have successfully failed to rise- to a tourist bait.