The Ober Ammergau Passion Play

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The Bavarian village of Oberammergau has staged the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ nearly every decade since 1634. Each production of the Passion Play attracts hundreds of thousands, many drawn by the spiritual benefits it promises. Yet Hitler called it a convincing portrayal of the menace of Jewry, and in 1970 a group of international luminaries boycotted the play for its anti-Semitism. As the production for the year 2000 drew near, James Shapiro was there to document the newest wave of obstacles that faced the determined Bavarian villagers. Erudite and judicious, Oberammergau is a fascinating and important look at the unpredictable and sometimes tragic relationship between art and society, belief and tolerance, religion and politics.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Performance written for Oberammergau in 1980.

The history of the Oberammergau Passion Play begins in 1633. In the midst of the Thirty Years' War, as plagues brought suffering and death for months on end, the people of Oberammergau vowed that they would stage the 'play of the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ' every ten years. It was at Pentecost in 1634 that they first fulfilled this promise. In 2022, the community will present the Passion Play for the 42nd time, an unrivalled feat of continuity. Almost half the residents of Oberammergau, more than 2000 participants, mount the life of Jesus of Nazareth in a five-hour performance on the imposing open-air stage of the Passion Play Theatre in southern Bavaria. With more than one hundred performances and half a million spectators it is the most successful amateur production in the world, and is included on UNESCO's register of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The official illustrated book documents Christian Stückl's new production of the Passion Play with set designs, costumes and tableaux vivants by Stefan Hageneier. It is the third Passion Play production that the two Oberammergau-born artists have staged together, one that sees them forging a connection with the present day, highlighting the pressing issues of asylum and integration. The rehearsals are captured by Icelandic cinematographer Birgit Guðjónsdóttir, and her moving andrichly detailed photographs reveal the enormous energy and emotional force of this unique event.

Named one of the "Ten Best Plays of 2008" by The New Yorker “Sarah Ruhl’s bold, inventive, and ironic triptych [is] a meditation on devotion and its appropriation by the state. . . . Ruhl is an original; a storyteller with a fine mind evolving her own theatrical idiom.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker “It’s a different kind of morality play . . . an often wondrous work . . . with [Ruhl’s] own special lyrical blend of poetry, humor and grace.”—Frank Rizzo, Variety Passion Play is Sarah Ruhl’s “biggest, most ambitious effort yet” (The New York Times), a three-and-a-half hour intimate epic, plunging the depths of the timely intersection of politics and religion. Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergua, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagan’s presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background, as Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, and Reagan each appear, played by a single commanding actor. Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Eurydice, and The Clean House, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been widely produced both throughout the country and internationally, and she is the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.