400-year-old passion play set to return

After a two-year delay due to coronavirus, Germany’s famous Oberammergau Passion Play will open this month.

Almost 400 years ago, the Catholic residents of the small Bavarian village vowed to perform a play of “the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ” every 10 years, if only God would spare them any further losses from the plague known as the Black Death.

Legend has it that ever since 1634, when the villagers of Oberammergau first performed their passion play, no more residents died of that pestilence or any other plagues – until 2020, when the world was hit by a new plague, the coronavirus pandemic.

Oberammergau, like so many places worldwide, suffered some Covid-19 deaths, though residents who confirmed that were unsure how many.

Another consequence was that the villagers could not fulfil their vow to stage the play after a 10-year interval.

It was set to open in the spring of 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.

Now, after a two-year delay, the famous Oberammergau Passion Play is finally opening on May 14 – the 42nd staging since its long-ago debut.

Almost half of the village’s residents – more than 1,800 people, including 400 children – will participate in the play

about the last five days before Christ’s crucifixion.

It is a production modernised to fit the times, stripped of antisemitic allusions and featuring a diverse cast that includes refugee children and nonChristian actors.

The play will be one of the first major cultural events in Germany since the outbreak of the

pandemic, with almost half a million visitors expected from Germany and all over the world, notably from the United States.

“Just a few weeks ago, many could not believe that the passion play would premiere,” said director Christian Stueckl, who was born in Oberammergau and has been in charge of the play for 30 years.

“We don’t know what Covid-19 will do, if there will be another wave,” he said.

“But we have an endless desire to bring our passion play back to the stage and we are highly motivated.”

The play, which runs to October 2, has received a makeover to become reflective of Germany’s more diverse society.

BACK ON STAGE: Cast members during rehearsal of the Oberammergau Passion Play.