OBERAMMERGAU

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

OBERAMMERGAU

CAST REHEARSING FOR CENTURY-OLD DRAMA THREE CENTURIES OF PREPARATION The cast has been settled and rehearsals are in full swing for next year’s periormance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau, which will at•ract many thousands of visitors, flocking to the little village in the Bavarian uplands to watch the peasants enact again, as they have done each decade lor three centuries, not as a theatrical show, but as a solemn act of worship, their Scriptural drama. At other places in Central Europe, especially in Bohemia and Switzerland, such plays still survive or have been revived, Scriptural folk dramas descending from the Miracle Plays and Mysteries of the Middle Ages. But none can compare in impressiveness and beauty with the famous one of Oberammergau. To hosts, whether they shared the creed of the players or not, it has brought illumination and inspiration.

Toward the close of the Thirty Year's War that terrible epidemic, the Black Death, ravaged the land. Villages around were smitten by the piague. According to the old chronicle, in •ne place there were but two households ir wh.rh both man and wife were spa-c-' s.i • I_’ elders of Oberammcrgau ■ ■ >gether and apt<» - ;ard every road ; ■ . . ■ track, keeping ou- strangers who might carry infection. drawing a cordon around the village to exclude the scourge. It was in vain. Karl Sch ussier. of Oberammergau, covetous of the high wages elsewhere in the dearth of labour owing to the plague, was reaping the harvest in another part of Bavaria. When he would have returned his way was barred by the sentinels. Longing to see his wife and children, he eluded the watchmen under cover of- darkness and reached bis home. But the seeds of the plague were in him. In two days he was dead and the dread disease was raging in the village. Eighty-four were carried off in three weeks. A Solemn Pledge. On the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude. October 28, 1633. the elders summoned all the inhabitants together to make- supplication for aid in their misery, solemnly pledging themselves to exhibit the Passion Play every ten years From that day. according to the chronicle, the pestilence abated and swiftly ceased, so that no more died and the sick recovered. Nor did it ever return to Oberammergau. The first performance took place in the churchyard The earliest text of the play extant is a copy “revised with care and newly transcribed” of 1662. This remained in use until 1750. Meanwhile, after 1674 the play was performed again in 1680, and thereafter at the beginning of each decade. A new text was supplied by a member of the ancient monastery of Ettal, higher up the valley. Miracle Plays in their decline degenerated into vulgar burlesque. The association of ribald fo dery with acred themes was offensive, and the authorities restricted the performance. In ?!a’:-h. I'7o. the ecclesiastics of Munich petitioned the Elector to forbid the plays entirely, protesting that “the greatest mystery of our holy religion was no fit subject for the stage.” News of the prohibition did not reach Oberammergau, secluded among the mountains, until two performances had already taken place. The villagers at once appealed to the Elector, pleading they might be permitted to fulfil the vow of their ancestors. Again and again they appealed. To their third ap-

plication the brusque reply was returned: “Petition finally refused.” In ten years’ time, however, they secured exemption from the general prohibition. Entirely a Local Product. The text was not absolutely free from offenc*. v. .in some crudity ami burlesque th-fT ; die of a ruder age. ■ Eochus Dcu.... a tc-ioolmaster of Ober- j ammergau. rew.ute it in 1815, when the | play was specially performed between the ten-year periods in thanksgiving for I Napoleon’s downfall. Jle removed | these objectionable traits and brought I the dialogue into closer conformity with ! the Biblical narrative. He also’ composed the sweet and simple airs for the orchestra which are still used. So that everything—the text, the actors, the costumes, the scenery, the music, the orchestra—is entirely a local product. In 1830, owing to the grafting numbers who came to see the play, the performances were transferred to an open- i air stage in the meadows.. Again in 1850 the text was revised, this time bv the parish priest, Josef Aloys Daisenberger. and only slight changes have since been made. Daisenberger condensed the prolix dialogues, modernised the language, and arranged the episodes with fine dramatic skill. He was a man of culture and loving devotion to his little flock, those 35 years among them / left a permanent impression on the village. Interest in foreign countries increased, and the enthusiastic description of the performances in 1850, with Dai-

senberger’s new text and arrangements, by Devrient, an eminent German critic, especially attracted attention. In 1870 tho outbreak of the war with France interrupted the performances, which were repeated the following year in thanksgiving for peace. The auditorium was enlarged from time to time, and in 1900 was covered in, seating 4,000 persons. Now there is accommodation for 6.000 spectators. In 1920 there were no performances because of the impoverishment of the war. which left no funds. They were given two years later, but entailed abject poverty on the villagers. No thought of prolit actuates them. The expense is naturally heavy, but the price for seats ridiculously low. The actors receive only a sum equal to what they would have earned at their usual tasks. If there is any surplus, it is devoted partly to road-building and other improvements for the comfort of visitors and partly to charity. The most tempting offers, to perform in America and elsewhere, are rejected, and constant attempts to induce the players to bei come film-actors fail. They will not commercialise their Passion Play. A Lack of Artifice. There are some 800 players, all natives, and the parts are assigned by a committee, which considers only the fitness of eacn. The children learn the parts as soon as they can speak, with pious hones of being chosen. About 150 of them appear in the ‘ ‘ tableaux v.vants.” There is no artifice, no grease-paint or powder. Hair and beards are grown to suit the character portrayed. The stage is in two parts, the upper one used for the Temple, the Garden of Olives, and some other scenes, but especially for the “tableaux” of symbolic or prophetic incidents from the Old Testament, sometimes including 250 adults as well as the children, introducing each act, and illustrating the unity of the Scriptures. On the lower stage are the streets of Jerusalem, with palm trees here and there among the flatroofed Eastern houses. The plav begins at eight in the morning ami with an interval for the midday meal lasts until evening. Each act is preceded by a prologue, delivered to music by the leader of a chorus of some fifty men and women in bright-hued robes and with golden coronets about their flowing hair, who take up the chant. The choral ode is followed by a “tableau” on the upper stage, and then the act begins. Before i and after the Crucifixion the chorus ap- | pears in black cloaks. The acting is always superb, for it is utterly sincere, j and the fruit of years of brooding over i the Gospel story and constant'practice.

I No description can convey an adequate conception of the impressiveness and beauty of the whole performance. It is packed with spiritual significance for all, whatever faith they hold.