The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-09-09
THE SCHOOL OF THE CROSS.
Father PheIan Describes the Scenes
in the Passion Play.


dramatized. Parallel with, the play
runs the story of Our Lord. beginning
with the Annunciation and ending with
the Crucifixion. This part of the per-
Torrance is given in tableauX, with
the same actors in the living groups
that took part in the last production of
the Passion Play. The leader of an
immense choir, after each stage in the
life of the Royal Psalmist. comes for
ward and explains the parallel between
King David and his Son, Christ. For
we are never permitted to forget that
Our Lord was a Son of David: The
motive of the play is the symbolism of
David's life fully realized in the life,
death and suffering of Our Lord.
The plan is carried on with consum-
mate skill. You seem to be in Jerusa
lem and what passes before your eyes
is not fiction, not even history: it is
living reality, and you feel that you
are actually transported twenty-five
hundred years back, and are living
under the rule of the MAN after Gods
own heart" The recitation of the
leader of the choir is a splendid piece of
dignified dramatic elocution, and he
speaks as a prophet Of old. pointing to
the great events that would take place
in the fullness of time, when the Son
of David would appear, and all things
would be fulfilled of which passing
events in the sacred city were but dim
foreshadOWingS AS you feel that you
were really in Jerusalem, living under
King Davids rule, you also feel that
the Christian era was a far distant
promise whose fulfillment was reserved
to Israers undying faith.
There are scenes in the School of
the Cross which are of surprising
grandeur, and so realistic that one feels
himself melted into the world of the
past. I never saw anything compar-
able to the scene where David tries the
armor of Saul. There was nothing
very touching in the scene beyond its
realism, but the latter was so bewitch-
ingly perfect that you melted into
tears of joy. L was ashamed of my
softness, and did not look around.
When the tears ran down my coat
front and it seemed as if [ would have
to prepare for a ducking of my own
lachrymal glands, [ looked around and
found everybody as much in the SYM
pathetic vein as myself. l can't tell
you just why, but it was so.
When David slew Goliath it was
done so artistically that you felt sure
the giant had received his coup de
grace, and you felt like running up and
grasping the hand of the valiant and
intrepid young shepherd. The scene
when David took final leave of Abso-
lom was very powerfully drawn. I
shall not describe it as acting; it was
more. Lastly, the cursing and stoning
of David when he prepared to evacuate
the city, and the news of the triumph
of his army and the defeat and death
of AbsoIom supplied the climax of a
drama the like of which will never be
seen outside of Oberammergau.
The parallel of the Staying of Saul
was the death of sin wrought by the
Passion of Our Lord. The treason of
Absolom was a figure of the treason of
Judas. The cursing and stoning of
David was a figure of the Passion. AS
the sword with which David cut off the
head of the Philistine was ever after
preserved in the Holy of Holies so the
instrument of life, the Holy Eucharist,
is perennially preserved in our taber-
! nacles, that whose shall eat of it shall
not taste death forever"
The last tableauX is the CrucifiXion,
which is an exact reproduction, with
out words, Of the closing scene of the
Passion Play, with the same actors.
l stopped at the house of Anton
Lang. the Christus in the Passion Play
of 1900. He strongly recalls the con-
ventional pictures of Our Lord. His
hair is worn long. His eyes are soft
and sympathetic. His figure is slim,
1.-THE and of the size one would be dis
posed to give to the Savior. He is de-
clared the greatest Christus of them
all. He was taken to Rome after 1900
and was presented to the Pope, who
offered to bestow on him some impor-
tant honors but in his humility, and
to all the more resemble Him whose
part he hoped to take again in 1910, he
declined all worldly honors. The priest
who prepared the actors for their roles
was made a Monsignor of the first
class l had a long conversation with
him and from him learned that ODER
ammergau lay upon an old Roman
road; that the legions of the Empire
had often made the surrounding hills
| resound to their conquering tread; that
Charles Y. stopped here when fleeing
from Maurice of SaXony; that Philip
II. of Spain was here on the occasion
Of a Corpus Christi celebration, and
that he joined in the procession and
carried a candle, singing the litanies
with the peasants of the place. In those
days kings did not feel themselves ex-
empted from the ordinary duties of
everyday Christians.
Now as for the merits of the per-
Torrance of the School of the Cross.
I came prepared TO be disappointed. 1
had heard so much of the Passion Play
lieve that much was eXaggeration. |
could not bring myself to believe that
common mountaineers could be devel-
! oped into consummate artists, no mat
ter who was their teacher, or how much
time was given to their training. [
was not looking at the play ten min
utes when I wished that all the great
actors l had ever seen were here to
| learn how to act. Criticism was dis
I IL
mercy of every word and look and ges
ture those marvellous people rendered.
Take. for instance. the attack of Saul
on David. The Grafton over the dead
| body of Caesar was never rendered
with such dramatic force. The curse
scene of Richelieu is tame in COMPARE
son. And the man who acted the part
was the sacristan of the church, who
! had served my mass in the morning.
In the first place these people have all
splendid speaking voices 1t may be
in the mountain air they breathe. or
the pure water they drink. At all
! events, they have very forceful and
! challenging voices. Then they live in
an atmosphere of Christian dignity
| The religious monuments of the place.
the great piety of the inhabitants. but,
! above all. the traditions of the Passion
| Play, have sobered them: so that in
| part ana speech ana look Lney DfeaIne
| dignity. To see those peasant girls
walk across the stage would be a study
| for any manager. They were all
| queens. from their plain. unmade-up
| heads TO their sandaled feet. That /
am not adding my quota to the eXag-
gerations of other lookers-On at Ober-
/ ammergau, I would state that the art
and musc-mad King Louis of Bavaria
! came here once to witness the Passion
! Play and had one performance for
himself alone. He was so much carried
| away that he ordered a magnificent
Crucifixion group for one of the hills
surrounding the town, and it stands
| there today. one of the grandest works