PASSION PLAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1930, Page 7

PASSION PLAY

OBER-AMMERGAU PRESENTATION

[BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

(Received May 9, 1 p.m.) BERLIN, May 8. An Ober-Ammergau report states that the villagers in this tiny Bavarian town again showed the devotion witn which they fulfil the solemn vow of their ancestors, 298 years ago, when the plague was raging, to represent the Passion of Christ, every decade.

The final rehearsal at the new theatre in preparation for Sunday’s official opening, was witnessed by the entire Bavarian Government, Papal Nuncio, and celebrities from all parts of the world. The fluttering costumes of the players, the crucified figure on the Cross, amid drizzling rain and dark scurrying clouds over the towering mountains was a most effective sight.

Every ’third inhabitant of the village participates in the performance. There are 550 on stage, in choir or orchestra, and 200 as stage hands. Despite the financial complications involved in pre senting the play under modern conditions —-the new threatre alone cost £50,000 —there is every evidence of the original religious intention being maintained in spirit as well as in form. There are 5,500 beds for strangers in the village of 2100 inhabitants. A journalist spoke to Alois Lang, who is Christus. A gentle, lovable man, he was tired after the long rehearsal. “It is anxious Work,” he said sadly. “There are unpaid rehearsals all the winter evenings. In the, daytime I do wood carving. I now have the leading part, and luipe to get a good price, for even a Christus must live. Wo have fourteen boarders tomorrow.”

“He gets no rest},” broke in his stout wife, who was accompanied by five dachshunds. Half way down the village was the high priest Caiaphas, shoeing a horse. Ho is a big handsome fellow, with a black beard. “No one loves Caiaphas,” he stated “I’ve played the part twice, but my son he plays the angel at the tomb, which is better.”