Passion Play

The Passion Play or Easter pageant is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus: his trial, suffering and death. The viewing of and participation in Passion Plays is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in the Catholic and Evangelical traditions; as such, Passion Plays are often ecumenical Christian productions.
Passion Plays have had a long and complex history involving faith and devotion, civic pageantry, religious and political censorship, large-scale revival and historical re-enactments.
The origin and development of Passion Plays in Great Britain can be traced back to one of the earliest pieces of theatre in Britain, which was the Quem Quaeritis: four lines spoken by two choirs addressing each other in a dramatic form. It can also be traced back to the liturgical drama used within the church and the Corpus Christi festivals which took place outside the church.
Passion Plays were the focal point of the Mystery Plays that were performed by city guilds in many medieval cities, the most prominent being York, Chester and Coventry. Public performances of Passion Plays lasted from the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth century, with a few examples into the seventeenth century.
During the Reformation, the Passion Plays and Mystery Cycles were suppressed due to their perceived Catholic influences. Eventually, in 1642 all theatre was banned with the suppression of the playhouses by a Puritan Parliament. With the Restoration, theatres opened again in 1660, this time with women permitted to perform on the stage. However, religion and politics were heavily censored for the next few hundred years in England and no Passion Play was performed publicly during this time.
The modern revival of Passion Plays began with the revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, the Chester Mystery Plays in the 1970s and the York and Towneley Plays as part of the Edinburgh Festival in 1977.
The development of the Passion Play was about the same as that of the Easter Drama. It originated in the ritual of the Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons. Later, the Passion Play made its appearance, first in Latin, then in vernacular languages; contents and forms were adapted more and more to audience expectations, until, in the fifteenth century, the popular religious plays had developed. The Benedictbeurn Passion Play (thirteenth century) is still largely composed of Latin ritual sentences in prose and of church hymns, and, being designed to be sung, resembles an oratorio.
Yet even this oldest of the Passion Plays already shows a tendency to break away from the ritual and to adopt a more dramatic form. This evolution is shown by the interpolation of free translations of church hymns and of German verses not pertaining to such hymns, as well as by the appearance of Mary (the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) and Mary Magdalene in the action. From these humble beginnings, the Passion Play developed very rapidly, since in the fourteenth century it was at a stage of development that could not have been reached except by repeated practice. From this second period, we have the Vienna Passion, the St. Gall Passion, the oldest Frankfort Passion, and the Maestricht Passion. All four Plays, as they are commonly called, are written in rhyme, principally in German.
The Vienna Passion embraces the entire history of the Redemption, and begins with the revolt and fall of Lucifer; the play, as transmitted to us, ends with Jesus and his Twelve Apostles sitting at the Last Supper.
The oldest Frankfort Passion play, that of Canon Baldemar von Peterwell (1350–1381), the production of which required two days, was more profusely elaborated than the other Passion Plays of this period. Of this play only the Ordo sive Registrum has come down to us, a long roll of parchment for the use of the director, containing stage directions and the first words of the dialogues. The plays based on this list of directions lead us to the period in which the Passion Play reached its highest development (1400–1515). During this period the later Frankfort Passion Play (1467), the Alsfelder, and the Friedberger (1514) originated. Connected with this group are the Eger, the Donaueschingen, Augsburg, Freising and Lucerne Passion Plays, in which the whole world drama, beginning with the creation of man and brought down to the coming of the Holy Ghost, is exhibited, and which was produced with great splendour as late as 1583.
Nearly all these Passion Plays have some relation to those coming from the Tyrol, some contributing to, others taking from, that source. These, again, are founded upon the Tyrolese Passion play which originated during the transition period of the fourteenth to the fifteenth century. Historian J. E. Wackernell, with the aid of the plays that have reached us, has reconstructed this period. In Tyrol the Passion Plays received elaborate cultivation; at Bolzano they were presented with great splendour and, in 1514, lasted no less than seven days. Here, too, the innovation of placing the female roles in the hands of women was introduced, which innovation did not become general until during the seventeenth century.
The magnificent productions of the Passion Plays during the fifteenth century are closely connected with the growth and increasing self-confidence of the cities, which found its expression in noble buildings, ecclesiastical and municipal, and in gorgeous public festivals. The artistic sense and the love of art of the citizens had, in co-operation with the clergy, called these plays into being, and the wealth of the citizens provided for magnificent productions of them on the public squares, whither they migrated after expulsion from the churches. The citizens and civil authorities considered it a point of honour to render the production as rich and diversified as possible. Ordinarily, the preparations for the play were in the hands of a spiritual brotherhood, the play itself being considered a form of divine mystical worship. People of the most varied classes took part in the production, and frequently the number of actors was as high as two hundred and even greater. It was undoubtedly no small task to drill the performers, particularly since the stage arrangements were still very primitive.
The stage was a wooden structure, almost as broad as it was long, elevated but slightly above the ground and open on all sides. A house formed the background; a balcony attached to the house represented Heaven. Under the balcony three crosses were erected. Sometimes the stage was divided into three sections by doors. Along the sides of the stage, taken lengthwise, stood the houses required for the production; they were indicated by fenced-in spaces, or by four posts upon which a roof rested. The entrance into Hell was pictured by the mouth of a monster, through which the Devil and the souls captured or released during the plays passed back and forth. The actors entered in solemn procession, led by musicians or by a præcursor (herald), and took their stand at the places appointed them. They remained on the stage all through the performance; they sat on the barriers of their respective divisions, and were permitted to leave their places only to recite their lines. As each actor finished speaking, he returned to his place. The audience stood around the stage or looked on from the windows of neighbouring houses. Occasionally platforms, called "bridges", were erected around the stage in the form of an amphitheatre.
The scenery was the background of old-time middle east. There were no side scenes, and consequently no stage perspective. Since an illusion of reality could not be had, indications were made to suffice. Thus a cask standing on end represents the mountain on which Christ is tempted by the Devil; thunder is imitated by the report of a gun; in order to signify that the Devil had entered into him, Judas holds a bird of black plumage before his mouth and makes it flutter. The suicide of Judas is an execution, in which Beelzebub performs the hangman's duty. He precedes the culprit up the ladder and draws Judas after him by a rope. Judas has a black bird and the intestines of an animal concealed in the front of his clothing, and when Satan tears open the garment the bird flies away, and the intestines fall out, whereupon Judas and his executioner slide down into Hell on a rope. A painted picture representing the soul, is hung from the mouth of each of the two thieves on the cross; an angel takes the soul of the penitent, the devil that of the impenitent thief. Everything is presented in the concrete, just as the imagination of the audience pictures it, and the scenic conditions, resembling those of the antique theatre demand. All costume, however, is contemporary, historical accuracy being ignored.
School dramas now came into vogue in Catholic and Protestant schools, and frequently enough became the battle-ground of religious controversies. When, in the 17th century the Jesuit drama arose, the Passion Plays (still largely secularized) were relegated to out-of-the-way villages and to the monasteries, particularly in Bavaria and Austria. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, during the Age of Enlightenment, efforts were made in Catholic Germany, particularly in Bavaria and the Tyrol, to destroy even the remnants of the tradition of medieval plays.
Public interest in the Passion Play developed in the last decades of the 19th century, and the statistician Karl Pearson wrote a book about them.
Since then, Brixlegg and Vorderthiersee in Tyrol and Horice na Sumave, near Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, and above all, the Oberammergau in Upper Bavaria attract thousands to their plays.
The text of the play of Vorderthiersee (Gespiel in der Vorderen Thiersee) dates from the second half of the seventeenth century, is entirely in verse, and comprises in five acts the events recorded in the Gospel, from the Last Supper to the Entombment. A prelude (Vorgespiel), on the Good Shepherd, precedes the play. After being repeatedly remodelled, the text received its present classical form from the Austrian Benedictine, P. Weissenhofer. Productions of the play, which came from Bavaria to the Tyrol in the second half of the eighteenth century, were arranged at irregular intervals during the first half of the nineteenth century; since 1855 they have taken place at regular intervals, at Brixlegg every ten years. The Höritz Passion Play, the present text of which is from the pen of Provost Landsteiner, has been produced every five years, since 1893.
In Australia, several major productions of The Passion are staged annually during the lead up to Easter.
The chief survivor of former times is the Oberammergau Passion Play, first performed in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau in 1634 and now performed every 10 years. The next Oberammergau Passion Play was to take place in 2020 but was delayed to 2022 amid COVID-19 concerns.
In 2010, about half the inhabitants of Oberammergau took part in the once-a-decade Passion Play; over 2,000 villagers brought the story of Jesus of Nazareth to life for audiences that flocked in from around the world. In accordance with tradition, the play started with Jesus entering Jerusalem, continued with his death on the cross, and finished with the Resurrection.
2010 saw a new production directed by Christian Stückl, director at Munich's noted Volkstheater. He was supported by the artistic team that, along with him, staged the 2000 Passion Play: deputy director and dramatic adviser Otto Huber, set and costume designer Stefan Hageneier, music director Marxus Zwink, and conductor Michael Bocklet. All four of these collaborators are from Oberammergau. The play started at 14.30 and included a three-hour interval, ending at 22.30. Performances took place between mid-May and early October 2010.
The Passion of Christ is performed in Sordevolo (Piedmont) every five years since 1816, from June to September, by all the inhabitants of the village in an open-air amphitheatre 4,000 square meters wide, of 2,400 seats under cover. In front of the audience is rebuilt a corner of Jerusalem. Each actor involved (about 500 people) is a volunteer, as well as who works "behind the scenes"(about 300 people) for scenography, costumes, script, horses. It is one of the greatest shows about the Passion of Christ in Italy, sacred in the topic, popular in its realization. About 40 shows are performed for each season. The next edition was planned for 2020, but has been postponed to summer 2022 due to the Coronavirus pandemic (June–September).
The Passion of the Christ is performed every year during Easter, in a purpose-built 100,000-square-metre (1,100,000 sq ft) theatre-city in the arid backlands of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. It is considered to be the largest open-air theatre in the world. Thousands of visitors arrive every year to watch the performance; over 500 actors appear on the nine separate stages within the stone walls of the New Jerusalem city-theatre, founded in 1968. 2.2 miles of walls and 70 towers flank the outer perimeter of the New Jerusalem Theater. The first passion play in the town took place in 1951, and consisted only of a few family and friends playing all of the roles. In 1963, the townspeople began constructing a replica Jerusalem in Brejo da Madre de Deus. The nine separate stages include The Upper Room, the Roman Forum, Herod's palace, Bethesda Lake and the Sepulcher. During 8 performances during the Holy Week, an average of 8,000 people per show from around the globe follow the actors as they move through "ancient Jerusalem", portraying every step of the Passion of Christ. In the 2010 season, when the 43rd anniversary of the Passion of Christ in Nova Jerusalem was celebrated, the public reached a record 80,000 people, coming from 22 Brazilian states and 12 countries.
Kőhegy (Stone Mountain) Chapel at Budaörs was built by Franz Wendler to whom Virgin Mary had appeared in a dream. He supposedly dreamt of a dog rose on Stone Mountain, every flower of which bore the face of Mary. On the petals he read: "I am the Immaculate Conception". In spring 1855, Wendler started construction. On 15 October 1855, the chapel was consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Conception. Franz Wendler lived in a cave next to the chapel from 1878 until his death. The chapel is one of the most important pilgrimage places for Germans of Hungary in the area of Buda. Every three years, Budaörs' inhabitants stage a passion play with Hungarian and German text.
The island nation of Malta features many Passion Plays, put on by provincial club, societies, and theatres in various localities. Each village and town often hosts several plays, and there is some competition among the troupes to put on the most moving or beautiful display. These are often combined with processions and wirjiet ("exhibitions") that feature models and renditions of the Passion.
Since 2007, a Passion Play entitled Il-Mixja, with Jesus being played by popular Maltese actor Alan Fenech and featuring some of the most highly acclaimed actors in Malta, has become one of the highlights of the genre on the island with the audience experiencing the passion of Jesus Christ as if they were present on the streets of Jerusalem during those historical two days. The play is held outdoors and has so far been held four times in the streets of Rabat, once at Ħaġar Qim temples and four times (2013–2016) for charity on the grounds surrounding Mount Carmel Hospital. In 2017 the event was held at the presidential Verdala palace in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund. In 2018 it was held both at Verdala Palace and on the grounds surrounding Mount Carmel Hospital whereas in 2019 the production once again changed location to the Romeo Romano Gardens in Santa Venera with once again the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation and the service users of Mount Carmel Hospital being the beneficiaries of this charity event. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19, however 2021 will see the production being transformed into a virtual experience screened in cinemas and online. It also marked Alan Fenech's last time in the role of Jesus, the role being taken up as from 2022 by John Vassallo. Since the 2022 edition, it has always been held in the gardens of the Verdala Palace and under the distinct patronage of the President of the Republic of Malta. All proceeds go towards the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation.
The predominantly Catholic Philippines has Passion Plays called Senákulo, named after the Upper room, every Semana Santa (Holy Week). Theatre companies and community groups perform different versions of the Senákulo, using their own scripts that present the dialogue in either poetic or prosaic form. These scripts are decades or even centuries-old, and draw from both the Bible and folk tradition.
Costumes and scenery in traditional Senákulo conform to Hispanic iconography instead of actual historical realism, which is more common with recent productions (particularly by professional companies). Some productions use ropes to hold actors on crosses while others use actual nails.
One of the more popular Senákulo is Ang Pagtaltal in Jordan, Guimaras, which began in 1975 and draws some 150,000 visitors annually. Some people perform crucifixions outside of Passion Plays to fulfill a panatà (vow for a request or prayer granted), such as the famous penitents in Barangay San Pedro Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga.
Tradition of Passion Plays in Poland has become popular again in the early 20th century. Today the best known plays take place in Kałków, Kalwaria Pacławska, the Pallotines' Seminary in Ołtarzew, and the most prominent in Sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. This Passion Play is one of the oldest.
In the 17th and 18th century, Passion Plays were organised in the towns of the Slovene Lands, like Kranj, Ljubljana, and Novo Mesto. Their language was German, Slovene, or both. They were all based on the tradition of the Ljubljana Passion Play, which was organised by Capuchins and first performed from ca. 1608 until ca. 1613. The most distinguished of them has been the Škofja Loka Passion Play. It was written by Father Romuald in 1715, with modifications until 1727, on the basis of an older tradition. It is the oldest preserved play in Slovene as well as the oldest preserved director's book in Europe and the only one extant from the Baroque period. The Škofja Loka Passion Play was performed each year until 1767. The procession was revived in 1999, and reprised in 2000 and 2009, with further reprisals planned for 2015 and 2021. The play's reprisals are the largest open-air theatre production in Slovenia.
In Catalonia, it is common for villages to present different Passion Plays every Easter, like the ones in Esparreguera, Olesa de Montserrat, Ulldecona or Cervera, first documented in 1538. Olesa's 1996 production surpassed the world record for the most people acting on stage at the same time, with 726 persons. Balmaseda, in the Spanish Basque Country, holds the leading Passion Play in the region.
The earliest Passion Plays in Sri Lanka, at Vanny in Mannar, Pesalai, Pamanugama, Mutuwal, Pallansena, Kalamulla, Duwa and Pitipana in Negombo, used life-size statues instead of living actors. Influenced by the Oberammergau Passion Play, K. Lawrence Perera, began the practice of using living actors in the Borelassa Passion Play. Women later began to take part in the play. However, for a period of time after 1939, the Archbishop of Colombo banned performances because of his disapproval of the women's participation. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, there are many Passion Play enactments in Sri Lanka:
The Church of Immaculate Conception and Samta Cruz Church in Bangkok and Chanthaburi holds an annual Passion Play on Good Friday.
Passion Plays have taken place all over the UK and between 20 and 30 plays are performed each year in locations such as Aberdeen, Abingdon, Alresford, Ballylinan, Bangor, Bath, Bedford, Belper, Beverley, Bewdley, Birmingham, Bishop Auckland, Bolton, Brentor, Brighton, Carlisle, Chester, Chinnor, Cowbridge, Crewe, Devizes, Duddingston Kirk, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Great Waltham, Guildford, Hamilton, Heworth, Hornchurch, Horsham, Hucknall, Kendal, Leominster, Lewes, Lincoln, Liverpool, Lytham, Norwich, Maidstone, Manchester, New Malden, Nuneaton, Oxford, Poole, Port Talbot, Preston, Redditch, Richmond, Settle, Shrewsbury, Southampton, South Woodham Ferrers, Spelthorne, St Neots, Tonbridge, Trafalgar Square, West Bridgford, Winterbourne, Wirral, Withensea, Wokingham, Woodstock, Worcester, Yeovil, York.
Passion plays are common in almost all catholic churches across Mexico during Holy Week, especially on Good Friday. They commonly follow the Stations of the Cross. The most famous passion play in the country is the Passion Play of Iztapalapa.
Many Passion Plays historically blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus in a polemical fashion, depicting a crowd of Jewish people condemning Jesus to crucifixion and a Jewish leader assuming eternal collective guilt for the crowd for the murder of Jesus, which, The Boston Globe explains, "for centuries prompted vicious attacks – or pogroms – on Europe's Jewish communities". Time magazine in its article, The Problem With Passion, explains that "such passages (are) highly subject to interpretation".
Although modern scholars interpret the "blood on our children" (Matthew 27:25) as "a specific group's oath of responsibility" some audiences have historically interpreted it as "an assumption of eternal, racial guilt". This last interpretation has often incited violence against Jews; according to the Anti-Defamation League, "Passion plays historically unleashed the torrents of hatred aimed at the Jews, who always were depicted as being in partnership with the devil and the reason for Jesus' death". The Christian Science Monitor, in its article, Capturing the Passion, explains that "historically, productions have reflected negative images of Jews and the long-time church teaching that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for Jesus' death. Violence against Jews as 'Christ-killers' often flared in their wake." Christianity Today in Why some Jews fear The Passion (of the Christ) observed that "Outbreaks of Christian antisemitism related to the Passion narrative have been...numerous and destructive."
Some of the oldest currently-running passion plays have had to reckon with past polemic portrayals of Jews in the work. The Oberammergau Passion Play is an especially notable example. First performed in 1634, the play continues to run today. In its original incarnation, the play relied upon the Antisemitic canard that Jews bore greater responsibility than any other group in the killing of Christ. It utilizes juxtaposition between pure Christians and wicked Jews in order to portray a greater battle between fundamental good versus evil.
Hitler attended the Passion Play in Oberammergau twice and praised it for its convincing portrayal of "the menace of Jewry".[1] Although he praised the Passion Play, he also derided Christianity. According to Alan Bullock, writing in Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Hitler saw Christianity as a religion fit only for slaves, and its teaching as a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle of the fittest. Following the events of World War II and the explicit support of Adolf Hitler for the play, several reforms and modifications were made. In the last few decades, it has revised its script and performance with the help of representatives from Jewish organizations.
While Oberammergau is perhaps the most famous example, this was not the only instance of Anti-Semitism or Anti-Semitic rhetoric in a Passion Play. The Towneley Mystery Plays, also known as the Wakefield Mystery Plays, also featured Anti-Semitic imagery, and ran from the late Middle Ages until 1578. It is believed to be one of the earliest and most explicit portrayals of Pontius Pilate as a king or a Jew (and sometimes as king of the Jews) in theatre (although this tradition had already become well-established in paintings and other visual media by this point). Through these stylings, the Jews are further implicated in the killing of Christ as being both the judge and the jury. This consistent rendering was emulated throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages, and is perpetuated in subtler forms even today.
In 1965, a Vatican declaration titled Nostra Aetate held that the crucifixion could not be blamed on the Jewish people, whether they were living in the first century or born after the death of Christ.
The Religion Newswriters Association observed that
On 16 November 1998, Church Council of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America similarly adopted a resolution prepared by its Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations urging any Lutheran church presenting a Passion Play to adhere to their Guidelines for Lutheran-Jewish Relations, stating that "the New Testament . . . must not be used as justification for hostility towards present-day Jews," and that "blame for the death of Jesus should not be attributed to Judaism or the Jewish people."
In 2003 and 2004 some people compared Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ to these kinds of Passion Plays, but this characterization is hotly disputed; an analysis of that topic is in the article on The Passion of the Christ.
Modern Passion Plays and contemporary re-tellings of the Passion story place greater emphasis on the Biblical account which tells a more complex story. Rather than isolating Jewish people as responsible for the death of Christ, the Bible reminds readers that Jesus was Jewish and his many supporters, friends and family were Jewish. Furthermore, the Bible alludes to the complex political, social and religious reasons that led both Roman and Jewish people to demand that Jesus be crucified.
Modern Passion Plays are supported in their endeavour to address historical prejudices and crimes against Jewish people by the work of many organisations that seek (Christian-Jewish Reconciliation). For example, in 1947, the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) explored the relationship basis of Christianity and antisemitism and in 2002, the Christian Scholars group issued "A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People"
The work of the American Jewish Committee, a leading global Jewish advocacy organization, and the Anti-Defamation League in changing the historical abuses of the Oberammergau play has provided greater awareness and understanding for future Passion Plays to learn from.
A recent statement on the website of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding & Cooperation (CJCUC) in Israel is described by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz as 'the most profoundly Jewish-centered interfaith documents ever to be released'. Writing in the Huff Post, he quotes its opening lines "We seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters. Jews and Christians must work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era".
The Passion Trust supports the resurgence of Passion Plays in the United Kingdom through resourcing, networking, advocating and financing new and existing plays. Established in 2011, its vision is to energise the growing number of Passion Plays taking place in the UK.
The Passion Trust hosts an annual conference in various locations around the UK, drawing together actors, arts practitioners, producers, directors, fundraisers and journalists to explore new and time-tested approaches to Passion Plays.
Europassion is a large European organisation which supports Passion Plays in Europe. Established in 1982, this umbrella organisation draws together Passion Play communities from countries all over Europe, some of which have been performing their plays for hundreds of years. According to Mons. Fausto Panfili, the Chaplain of the Europassion:
"The experience of the Europassion constantly lets us experience a so far unexplored pathway, so that we can continue to grow. Surmounting a self-referred vision of our own experience obligates us to confront a regional, national, European and universal horizon. That is why a new vision, not fragmentary, is necessary. Unity doesn't mean uniformity. A spiritual energy, stronger and more attentive to cultural elaboration, a more evident solidarity in order to be recognised as bearers of hope, to help the people and communities grow."