The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1900-11-21

POooSooCu UuC OCduUy duu SUI ICuStu
of character which men would like
to think of as being possessed by
the real Christ. Anna Fllnger, a
village maiden,> nineteen years of
age, took the part of Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and had the grace
and ease in her every turn of an ac-
complished actress. The Judas of
the play, after he had decided to
betray Christ, seemed to be changed
into an entirely different man with
the fierce look and the reckless
mien becoming man who could do
such deed. The disciples looked
like simple fisherman or peasants,
who could be met in the ordinary
ranks of life.
| 1t was an arrangement of the vii
| layers that none but men and women
who were born in the village could
take part in the play. Some one
! was taken from every house, and
from some houses several members
OF the family took part. Their pay
was small. The people who took
the most prominent parts were not
paid over $40O or $500 and the chill
dren not more than $40. About
600 or 700 people altogether were
engaged. This year the sum of
$3.50, 600 would be taken in. The
new theatre cost $4,000, and the
rest of the money was given to the
actors, the poor of the place, the
hospital and for the sanitation of the
village. The village council had
the entire management of the funds.
One of the most remarkable things
about the play was the perfection
OF the tableaux and of the acting.
In some of the tableaux three or
four hundred people were engaged
and sat or stood for four or FIVE
minutes as perfectly still as if they
were wax figures.
The best actors on any stage in
this country or any other could not
eclipse the leading actors in the
Passion Play.
The play opened with the trium-
phal entry of Christ into Jerusalem
when all Jerusalem was on the
stage, the children singing their
hosannas as they strewed palm
leaves in the way. The celebration
of the Lord S Supper and the scene
in Gesthemane were two of the most
impressive presentations. In the
former the abrupt manner of Judas
and in the latter the pleading of
Jesus under the palm tree while
the disciples slept were very prom
inent features.
The trial scene was highly char
acteristic of an eastern mob. Gaia
phas exhorting the people to put
Jesus to death was a piece of plead
ing worthy of a modern high class
attorney. Plate looked weak for a
Roman governor, but that was in
tended as part of the play. The
crucifixion scene. as the sceoe in
which Jesus put His mother into the
care of John, brought tears to many
eyes. Men even did not seem
ashamed as they sobbed aloud.
Anton Lang hung on the cross for
twenty minutes and it was said
about him that he lay prostrate for
hours after the play was over. Be-
tween the scenes OF the crucifxion
and resurrection a strange coinci-
dent, in a natural thunder storm
coming on, occurred. When the
darkness began to appear around
the cross, the thunder began and
the audience for time could not de-
termine whether the thunder was
natural or mechanical. After the
ascension in which Anton Lang, as
Jesus, was seen ascending in a
cloud, the audience could no longer
restrain itself and burst into a
round of applause. No applause
was allowed during the play, though
the strain became so intense at
times that it would have been a
great relief if those who looked on
could have shouted or stamped their
feet or clapped their hands or any
thing else bv which their feelings
might have found vent.
The impression which the whole
play made on the speaker was a
moro 1ivinr vision >e 49, 1o-x -.