RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 20292, 28 September 1929, Page 26

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Forward-, J

“ Dramatic activity is not a form of s e if-expressiou alien to our nature—it is the natural mood and method of it; when we act we do not cease to live, we live more intensely.” RELIGIOUS DRAMA. Religious drama started in England in the church in its services, when, portions of Scripture were represented for religious and moral edification. About the eighth century a.d. there was a tendency to elaborate the ritual by introducing melodies, sung to vowel sounds. Soon words were written for these vowel songs, the texts based on Scripture being known as “tropes.” These “ tropes ” wore sung by the choir at the beginning of Mass, as the celebrants approached the altar. The twenty-eighth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, verses 1 to 7, was its earliest form; the corresponding portion in Mark’s Gospel being verses 1 to 6 of the sixteenth chapter.. When transferred to the celebration of Easter it fell easily into a dialogue between the parts of the choir; one semi-choir took the part of the angel-at the sepulchre, the other the answer of the women. By the tenth century the dialogue had developed into a little play, one of the arches of the church representing in a crude way the cave; beside the entrance lay a great stone, apparently just rolled away. Three of the clergy, dressed in long garments denoting womanhood, approached the opening, where thy met another figure dressed in white, bearing wings and holding a palm in his hand. The angel sitting beside the tomb asks: “ Whom seek ye?” The reply: “ Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified.” The angel tells them: “He is risen; He is not hero; behold the place where they laid Him.” Lifting the veil, ho shows them the place, bare of the body and only the clothes remaining in which the Cross was shrouded. The three, taking the cloth, hold it up and sing “ The Lord has risen from the grave,” and then the ‘ Te Deum ’ is sung with joy and accompanied by the ringing of bells.

The same sort of development took place with the Christmas trope, which dealt with the angelic choir appearing to the shepherds. The cradle was placed near the altar, and certain of the clergy arrayed as shepherds advanced singing a hymn. A boy dressed as an angel sang, in reply the glad tidings from position above. As the shepherds neared the cradle they were met by two priests attendant at the Divine birth. A dialogue followed, beginning with questions regarding the Babe. Another hymn was sung, and the play of the shepherds ended. To the play of the shepherds was added a “ trope ” representing the three kings of the East, guided by a star to the cradle that lay underneath. A sermon, supposed te be written by Augustine on the prophets, was used in the same way, the prophets coming forth in their costumes with appropriate cymbals and reciting their prophecies. These furnshed a kind of living picture book of sacred story to strengthen the faith of unlearned people. Thus the drama was born in the church, and is being reborn.in the church now, pageantry becoming more and more in the hands of the skilled educator a valuable method towards tho development of a Christian character. THE PASSION PLAY. The Passion Play of Oberammergau (a little village in the Tyrol) is the most remarkable religious survival iu tho world. These villages had their miracle cycles as early as the twelfth century. The passion drama dates back to 1633. When the thirty years’ war ended a plague threatened to wipe out this village, as others had been. In their dire distress, when deaths were increasing daily, those who. were unaffected cried to God. They cried aloud that if they wore only spared they would repent of their sins, and to show their godly living they would every ten years present tho drama of the death and resurrection of Christ. The plague was stayed, and next year the first passion drama was given, and except in the times of great wai prevention it was given every ten years. In 1870 the tune of the play had changed to the first year of each decade. The Franco-Prus-sian War began; the Christ came down from the Cross to serve in it. Owing to the World War the play was postponed form .1920 to 1922. The Passion Play. Committee, with tho mayor a. its official head, is made up of nineteen members, and meets every week during tho year before the performance. For its responsibility lies in tho choosing of the cast and appointing and directing all sub-committees. The whole village makes tho play its chief interest. Often one or more are recast for tho same parts, having impersonated the Biblical characters with distinction. In 1922 Anton Lang played tho Christ part for the third time, having taken the part with dignity and spirituality unprecedented. The Virgin Mary—a young girl—is, of course, chosen anew each decade. A veteran player who has taken many prominent parts once played Judas Iscariot with such conviction that he brought tears to the eyes of the audience, and so identified himself with the remorseful character that he hanged himself and had to be rescued. The actors devote themselves with religious zeal to the rehearsal of their parts for seven months. Tho play has been revised several times; its simplicity is due to the leading mental, moral, and spiritual spirit of Oberammergau—Father Dorsentarger. The play depicts the human side of the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, and falls into three divisions, the first division beginning with the entry of Christ into Jerusalem and ending at His arrest in the Garden. It has seven acts. The second division has also seven acts, and depicts tho scenes from the arrest to the condemnation by Rilate; the third division begins with the condemnation, occupying four acts. Each act is preceded by a tableau, and is “so introduced that the thoughtful spectator will be able to. realise the grand truth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made man for our salvation, is the central figure of the whole inspired volume.”

Th Passion Play has 600 performers, with 125 speaking parts. Three or four hundred are needed for the tableaux, while 100 work out the details. Tho play takes eight hours, and Mass is celebrated before the parts are taken.# Preparation is accompanied by special religious training. The villagers refuse fabulous prices to play elsewhere. They refuse to place it on a commercial basis.

‘ ‘ The thirty pieces of silver have beeai refused with smiling rebuke.” Theatre owners, picture magnates have tried in vain to get the right to produce the parts of it or the music without success’ and have gone away disappointed. The simple villagers go about their everyday work and worship. A London publisher said of the play: “What a revelation it is of the mine of latent capacity—musical, dramatic, intellectual—in the human race that a single mountain village can furnish, under capable guidance and with adequate inspiration, such a host, competent to set forth, such a play, from tinkers, tailors, ploughmen, and bakers and the like.” It is not capacity that is lacking to mankind, it is the guiding brain, the patient love, the careful education, and the stimulation and inspiration or a great idea.