Passion play to ward off plague to return after Covid postponement

GERMANY’S OBERAMMERGAU Passion Play, which reportedly protected a village from plagues for almost 400 years until Covid, will return later this month.

In 1634, the Catholic residents of the small Bavarian village of Oberammergau 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 Black Death.

Legend has it that ever since the first performance no more residents died of that pestilence or any other plagues until 2020, when the world was hit by a new plague – coronavirus.

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

The play was due to open in the spring of 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic. It will now return on May 14.

More than 1,800 people, including 400 children – almost half of the village’s residents – will participate in the play about the last five days before Christ’s crucifixion.

The production is modernised to fit the times, stripped of antiSemitic allusions and featuring a diverse cast that includes refugee children and non-Christian 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 more than 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.”