Wait nearly over for villagers to show off their passion to half-a-million pilgrims
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by Danny Boyle
The barber must hate it with a
passion. For more than a year, half the villagers of Oberammergau
grow their hair and the men their beards in preparation for a
once-in-a-decade performance.
They have been waiting in the wings
since 2000 to begin a marathon season of the world’s biggest
production of the greatest story ever told.
Half a million pilgrims – including
55,000 Britons – are set to descend on the German village to watch
perhaps the most elaborate re-telling of Jesus’s death and
resurrection.
The Passion Play’s roots can be traced
back to 1633, when villagers vowed to God they would perform the
story every 10 years if they were spared death.
It is said no one was struck down
after the pledge, so the Oberammergau Passion Play was first
performed in 1634 and the epic, five-hour production has been
running ever since.
Passion Plays were common in Europe
during the 16th and 17th centuries, but Oberammergau’s is the only
one to survive.
To have the right to tread the boards,
participants must either be born in the village, in the Ammergau
Alps region of Bavaria, or have lived there for at least 20
years.
More than 2,500 people – half the
village – are involved in some way, including up to 1,000 people in
the crowd scenes.
A year before curtain-up, the names of
those who will play the main characters are chalked up on a board
outside the theatre as they have been for centuries. This year,
Jesus is a psychologist, Mary Magdalene an air stewardess and Herod
a dentist.
I visited during rehearsals – running
every day since November – and stayed at the Hotel Alte Post, whose
owner plays High Priest Caiphus.
Quiet in the winter season, it is
difficult to imagine thousands of people will soon pour into this
snow-drifted Jerusalem and its impressive open-air theatre.
Backstage, Jesus’s cross and thorny
crown sit alongside rows of costumes and Roman armour in
preparation for the influx of visitors.
From the scenery to the outfits,
everything is home-grown in Oberammergau. It has several music
schools that nurture talent for the play’s choir and symphony
orchestra in the nine years before a performance. But the village
is also famous for woodcarvings and 3D-effect luftmalerei –
literally air paintings – which adorn many properties.
A
nd
just an hour-and-a-half from Munich, there’s plenty more to do than
watch the play.
Oberammergau is a short drive from
19th-century Linderhof Castle, the smallest but most opulent of
King Ludwig II’s homes. It is also only 20 minutes from the ski
resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen – home to next year’s Alpine World
Ski Championships.
But most visitors come for the play,
of which there will be more than 100 performances over five months
from May 15.
One of two actors preparing to play
Jesus is 30-year-old Frederik Mayet. He tells me his family have
not been involved in the play for very long – only since 1890, he
adds.
Astonishingly, many family names have
appeared in the cast list for the past five centuries and some
actors have performed for eight decades.
The Passion Play is a rite of passage
for the villagers, who count the milestones in their lives by
productions.
You don’t have to be passionate to
live in Oberammergau, but it helps. So does hair.
Places are still available on Passion
Play packages.
German tour operator Dertour offers
three nights bed and breakfast in Munich and one night full board
in Oberammergau with play tickets and return flights from Heathrow
with British Airways.
The cost is from £829 per person.
Phone 020 7290 1111 or visit www.dertour.co.uk
Monday, March 29 2010
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