A Night of Passion!

A night (and day) of passion! At my age a night of passion is a rare thing and no, don’t get all excited this is not what you’re thinking! Tadaaaa! An unexpected trip to Oberammergau and even better, I managed to get a ticket for the world famous Passion Play. 

About two months ago, I was watching a fabulous documentary about the making of the 2022 Passion Play never thinking I'd be there watching it two months later. 

In 1634, the Plague broke out in Oberammergau and the villagers took a vow to perform a Passion Play every 10 years! The original play was performed on a wooden platform in the church cemetery built alongside the graves of the Plague victims and was very effective, Oberammergau had no further deaths from the disease. 

Here we are in the open air theatre, photos during the performance are not allowed but here you get an idea of the size of the stage! The whole of Oberammergau has been in Passion Play fever since the performances began in May, especially as the event was cancelled due to Corona in 2020. Oberammergau has just over 5000 inhabitants and 2000 are involved onstage and off. Taking part on stage is only allowed if you are either born in Oberammergau or have been an inhabitant for at least 20 years, and walking around the town it is not unusual to see Jesus or one of the Apostles scooting around on their bikes, long hair and beards flowing in the wind. Beard/ hair growing starts on Good Friday the year beforehand and in an interview ''Jesus'' said he was so looking forward to going to the Barbershop after the last performance at the start of October. 

1400 performers appear on the stage alongside horses, a donkey, dromedaries, sheep, goats and doves! In the documentary they showed the actors who lead the dromedaries on having to do a camel ''driving licence'' beforehand. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the actor playing Pontius Pilatus had settled in to riding his horse, in the film he had never ridden before and the horse was extremely nervous about being on the stage! 

It’s one of those bucket list things for many people, me included and sitting there in the packed auditorium seemed very surreal and very chilly to be honest, the performance takes 51/2 hours with a couple of hours break in the middle. On stage, the choir, actors and tableaux put up a brilliant and unforgettable performance, and I can indeed understand the hype, as the Oberammergauers put it themselves……. It’s passion!