Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 (review)

The Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 was inextricably and uniquely linked to a collective performance of the town's identity. This connection was reinforced by the most impressive aspects of the production, including the costume design and musical direction, and extended beyond the boundaries of the stage. The Oberammergau Passion Play has been produced every ten years (nearly) for the past 350 years, and the 2010 production continued reforms to the text and staging that began in 1990 and 2000. Those that resonated dramatically either reinforced the importance of the crowd as player or echoed broader shifts in German cultural identity.

Jesus (Frederik Mayet) clears the temple in the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010. (Photo: Brigitte Maria Mayer.)

Oberammergau has strict rules for who may perform in the town's passion play. Only those born in Oberammergau or who have been a resident for more than twenty years (ten if they marry a native) are deemed to have absorbed the town's identity fully enough to participate. Changes to the script and staging are always subject to collective approval, with the town council and its religious leaders sharing responsibility for some matters, while others require a vote by the entire town. Over the past thirty years the production has generated heated debate, and even legal disputes, as married women and Protestants fought for full rights to participate, and as traditionalists battled reformers for control of the production.

While most production runs begin when the show opens, the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 began more than a year earlier, when over 2,000 of the town's 5,000 residents stopped cutting their hair. Spectators' experiences of the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 began not when they entered the theatre, but when they arrived in the quaint Alpine town with its painted house facades and traditional woodcarvings. An exhibit showing previous productions of the play, divided between the playhouse foyer and the local history museum, documented the intertwining of previous productions with the town's identity over the past century.

The first scene of the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 was a new one written by director Christian Stückl and assistant director Otto Huber. Jesus (Frederik Mayet) entered in a triumphal procession, hailed by the crowd. This scene showcased the production's huge cast and subtly undercut later crowd scenes, where the masses called for their former hero's crucifixion. It also evoked a strong sense of recognition, even among audience members with little religious training, by drawing upon some of the best-known elements of Jesus' teachings (for example, "let he who is without sin throw the first stone," "turn the other cheek," and so on). Most importantly, though, it set the stage for the performance of mass identity that continued throughout the production.

Pilate condemns Jesus (Frederik Mayet) to death in the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010. (Photo: Brigitte Maria Mayer.)

Stefan Hageneier's highly effective costume design dressed the townspeople in blue robes and scarves. Their simple costumes contrasted sharply with the more elaborate gowns and headpieces of the Jewish priests and the military garb of the Roman soldiers. The effect was to turn the crowds into a unified whole—the body of Oberammergau. Hageneier's costumes for the choir were similarly unadorned, with stark white robes and headpieces for both men and women creating visual unity. The masterful musical interludes—the choir and orchestra under the direction of Markus Zwink were first class—refrained from shifting the focus of the stage picture to the talented soloists; instead, the primary impression was one of collective excellence—the voice of Oberammergau.

Mayet's Jesus was played with quiet conviction as a...