Oberammergau Passion Play

This article has to be written in English since there is an Oberammergau waitress who'll read it. And she doesn't understand Norwegian..

Very well. My second day in Germany started with a car trip from from Farchant and up to Oberammergau. The conversation in the car was like this:

Dad: - I forgot my hat!!

Mom: - Then we have to turn and get it.

Dad: - I'll buy a new one. I've got so much money.

Mom: - Are you MAD?! Turn around.

Dad: - I've got plenty of hair..

Mom: - Stop talking nonsense. Turn around!!

Dad: - It's not like you can make a u-turn everywhere, Rita!

Mom: - Well, you could have placed the car in THAT file and turned around THERE (pointing out of the window).

The end of the story was that we did turn around to pick up dad's hat. When we arrived Oberammergau there was a heavy rain and we spent our first minutes as tourists under umberellas. The play started 14.30, so we spent the first half of the day gift shopping and avoiding getting wet.

The Oberammergau theater is a massive building that can take almost 5000 visitors. It's an open air theater which brings an significant atmosphere to the performance. Under here is a short video clip from the inside atmosphere of the theater. (To all of those who knows my parents, check out who is filmed in the end...).

The story behind the passion play is not of an ordinary kind. When the plague hit Oberammergau in the 17th century, and killed almost 100 inhabitants, the remain living started to pray to God and promised to put up a passion play every 10th year if people stopped to die. It is said that no one died from that moment on. And since then there has been a passion play in Oberammergau consisting of only local participants. That's very impressive since there are about only 5000 inhabitants in Oberammergau and half of them participate in one way or other every time the play is put up.

It was strictly forbidden to take photos during the performance, but I took a couple in a very sneaky, iPhony way to document that I was there. The first picture is of the choir, they were all prettily dressed up in white dresses and sang wonderfully.On the second picture there is actually a crucifixion going on, it's just a little bit hard to see because I sat so far back and my iPhone has a lousy camera. That crucifixion-scene caused me a bit of mind trouble because it was rather late when it took place, and I was deeply worried that the actors would catch a cold by hanging up so long in the air with only loin cloths on.

It was a fantastic experience to watch and hear the Passion Play. The actors were fantastically skilled and the costumes were beautiful. This small community has such strong traditions for theater and music that I wonder if it has become a part of their DNA permanently.

Fredrik Mayet did a fantastic job as Jesus. Since it's hard work being Jesus (at least it's hard work to get crucified several times a week) there are two Jesuses. Mayet (and the other one too, I'm sure!) did the job with the deepest

devotion.

I also must add a photo of the costumes. Some of the actors wore fantastic (and funny!) hats. I hope they will become fashion one day so that I can wear one. In addition to all the pretty costumes, there were a donkey, several sheep, doves, a horse and TWO camels on stage during the performance. I wonder if there's a zoo close by to Oberammergau.

This last picture is of the actor who played Peter. He was excellent in every way in acting, but I also find him very pretty and therefore he gets a picture on my blog.

Tweet