Article: The Theatre Backpacker (www.theatreartlife.com)
OBERAMMERGAU PASSIONSSPIELE: EXPLORING A SACRED THEATRE
By Jack Paterson | Part 6 of 10
Originally published January 25, 2024 at www.theatreartlife.com
Original Article Link: Exploring a Sacred Theatre – Part 6 (theatreartlife.com)
OBSERVING REHEARSALS DAY 2 : EVOLVING TO MEET THE TIMES
Date: April 2022
Location: Oberammergau, Germany
Activity: Rehearsals
It’s 6 PM.
On Stage. The marketplace. Judas is angry at Jesus’s lack of political action. Roman soldiers. Jesus bound. Silver. Judas runs.
The costumes are gorgeous. This is a contemporary design drawing from across history. Early in the production, the soldiers breast plates, helmets, swords, and spears suggest the 1600s and the period of the play’s origin. The temple priests are draped in beautiful colored robes with the younger men in all white.
Like any “work through”, not everything goes to plan. Cues are missed and lines are dropped. A roman guard very helpfully picks up the hat of a man he is supposed to be beating to the laughter of everyone involved. A mis-cued preshow announcement interrupting the choir over the speakers. We stop while someone and something is located. I pull up my mask as the wind blows through the theatre. I make a mental note to wear everything I brought with me tomorrow night.
What ever the problem is – it is solved. The actors complete their scene, the choir re-enters and the next living tableau is revealed.
Oberammergau Passion Play 2022: Judas and Jesus – Photo Gabriela Neeb
I am not a believer, but even I know this next story.
Judas enters. Even though in German, I understand the story the actor is trying to tell – a man grappling with his guilt. Upstage hangs the noose.
Widely considered the best part, this year Judas is played this year by 22-year-old actor Cengiz Görür. Like all the lead roles, he rotates the part with another local performer Martin Schuster. Görür is the first actor of Muslim faith to play a leading part in the production. Finding his vocation through Stückl, he began acting with smaller roles at the Oberammergau Festival Theater in the ten years between the Passions. When he started his professional acting training in Munich. Stückl promised him a part that would “snap his ears”.
“I want to show his inner turmoil, the despair,” he said of Judas in a pre-pandemic press interview. And he does. Despite my language barrier, I feel his every moment. I want to stand up and applauded at the end of the scene.
Oberammergau Passion Play 2022: Cengiz Görür Photo – Birgit Gudjonsdottir
When Stückl first took over as director, performers had to of one of the two major German churches – Roman Catholic or Lutheran. These would not be the only traditional limitations to participation. One of Stückl’s early controversies was casting married mother, Elisabeth Petre, as Mary. At that time, only unmarried women under the age of 35 were allowed to participate. A protestant spoke the prologue for the first time, causing even further controversy in the community.
As the Passionsspiele evolves to meet the contemporary needs and realities of Oberammergau, those who have left the church, atheists, and members of any other religious affiliations can participate as long as they are residents. This year the children of recent refugees were invited to join to the performance.
“There’s still more to be done,” says a woman I speak to. The leading roles are all male, except for Jesus’ mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. And to quote the rebel director, “To bring the play to the next generation, you have to bring it to your time.”
Oberammergau Passion Play 2022: Mary and Jesus – Photo Gabriela Neeb
Links & Sources:
A Rabbi’s Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, by Joseph Krauskopf [1901]
https://sacred-texts.com/jud/rio/rio03.htm
How Hitler’s Favorite Passion Play Lost Its Anti-Semitism by A.J. Goldman (The Atlantic, August 4, 2022)
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/08/oberammergau-passion-play-german-jewish-history/671026/
Meet the director removing anti-Semitism from Oberammergau’s famous Passion play by Andrew Faiz (Broadview Magazine, March 23, 2021)
https://broadview.org/oberammergau-passion-play/
Oberaumagau Passionsspeile:
https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/home
Oberammergau Passion Play Director Christian Stückl Receives American Jewish Committee Isaiah Award (AJC News, August 10, 2022) https://www.ajc.org/news/oberammergau-passion-play-director-christian-stuckl-receives-american-jewish-committee-isaiah
Of Beards and Bubonic Plague: German Village Prays for a (2nd) Miracle by Katrin Bennhold (New York Times, April 5, 2020)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/world/europe/germany-oberammergau-passion-play-coronavirus.html
Images:
1. Oberammergau Passion Play 2022 22 Final Scene – Photo Arno Declair
2. Oberammergau Passion Play Judas and Jesus – Photo Gabriela Neeb
3. Oberammergau Passion Play 2022 Cengiz Görür Photo – Birgit Gudjonsdottir
4. Oberammergau Passion Play 2022 Mary and Jesus – Photo Gabriela Neeb
Continue Reading The Theatre Backpacker
OBERAMMERGAU PASSIONSSPIELE: EXPLORING A SACRED THEATRE
PROLOGUE or BACK ON THE ROAD (Part 1)
Perhaps because I’m watching a known innovator who values the traditional, sacred, and the new, it seems right to write about another ritual, and another village far from the Balinese sun.
OBERAMMERGAU (Part 2)
The Oberammergau Passionsspiele has been performed every 10 years since 1634. The earliest continuous survivor of the age of Christian religions drama, it’s one of the longest running western performing arts traditions.
OBSERVING REHEARSALS - DAY 1 (Part 3)
The first performance of the Passionsspiele in 1634 was performed on a simple wooden construction at the parish church cemetery over the fresh graves of plague victims.
EXPLORING OBERAMMERGAU (Part 4)
The passionsspiechele echoes through every aspect of Oberammergau. I walk down streets with names like “the kingdom of heaven” or named after past writers and composers of the play.
MUSIC AND TABLEAUX VIVANT (Part 5)
To maintain the unique traditional skill sets needed for the music, the village has multiple choirs and orchestras operating throughout the 10 year gaps between productions.
EVOLVING TO MEET THE TIMES (Part 6)
Widely considered the best part, this year Judas is played this year by 22-year-old actor Cengiz Görür.
FACING THE PAST (Part 7)
With the challenging history of passion plays and the contemporary history of the region, Oberammergau doesn’t hide from its past. Nor does it hide from its responsibilities.
HUMAN STORIES (Part 8)
There is something very German in the aesthetic. Despite the pageantry, ritual, and scale of this project, this is a story about human beings.
LESSONS & REFLECTIONS (Part 9)
In the past , Passion Plays were the few opportunities for local people to engage with their spiritual and religious stories in their own voices.
EPILOGUE (Part 10)
For tradition to survive, it must stay true to its purpose but also evolve to meet the needs of the people and the time