The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-07-08

cows into the fields and hills, and
not returning until 6 at night.
That is the rush hour for the cows,
and traffic has to comply with their
whims as they slowly trot home
ward, never minding the honking of
automobiles that might get into
their path.
The Play Is Their Life Mission.
Just as the ability to act seems to
be in the blood of the majority, the
people of Oberammergau hold a
deeply inbred feeling of personal re-
sponsibility toward their important
task, their sacred tradition. They
live and die for their play. They do
not play to live, but live to play
which may at times appear incom-
prehensible to the hurried traveller,
rushing in and out again without
ever penetrating more deeply into
the meaning of the villagers work,
habits, and customs.
All amusements, such as dancing,
are prohibited during the solid year
of preparation for, and concentra-
ton upon, the Passion Play. Yet
the village, during its six months
OF rehearsing under Georg Lang's
most able direction (there are more
than 30 families of the name Of
Lang in Oberammergau), dons fes-
tive attire. Houses look more at
tractive. Gardens, streets, walks,
and parks hum with activity.
The year 1910 will display about
the same course of things, but
there will be more buses and auto
mobiles from May until September.
Once again, for a period of five
months, the village will be handed
over, willy-nilly, to the countless Wis
itors, their prejudices and criti-
cisms, their whims, their admira-
ton and praise of what is but nat
ural to those laboring in the homes
and playing on the stage of the
mammoth theater before 5000 spec
tators, occasionally as often as five
times a week.
How the Play Is Presented.
From 8:15 a. m. to SIS p. M, with
two hours recess for lunch, the thou
sands watch the performance with
tense interest from beginning to end,
never turning their eyes, which are
often dimmed with tears, from the
recently built and modernized CEN
trail stage.
In front of it, fanked by the house
of PLATE and the palace of Annas,
opens the proscenium, 140 feet
wide, on which-rain or sunshine
the mass scenes take place and the
Al members of the chorus-all local
talent-appear, led in and out by
the majestic figure of the Speaker
of the Prologue, whose task is to in
troduce each act of tableau. He
has more lines than any other mem.
Der of the cast.
There are "a Of these artistically
set and lavishly mounted pictures,
irregularly scattered among the is
acts and representing scenes from
the Old Testament, running parallel
with the New.
The very beginning of the per-
formance, announced by the boom
of cannon discharged on a dis
tant hill, plunges the audience into
deep silence, and absorption. Or
chestra, choir, prologue, and tab
leaux heighten this mood: then the
curtains part.
Impressive Climax of the Drama,
Now Christ triumphantly enters
Jerusalem. The jealous priests be-
gin their work against Him, while
Christ bids farewell to His Mother
and friends at Bethany before re-
turning to the city of His doom.
There the last Supper unites Him
and His twelve disciples once more.
Judas hastens away to betray His
Master in the Mount of Olives.
Christ is seized.
The afternoon sees Him before the
high council, slandered, Knocked,
and jeered, and eventually sent to
Pontius PLATE, who passes Him on
to King Herod. Peter repents his
sin of denial, whereas Judas finds no
way out but the rope.
Christ is scourged and crowned
with thorns, and presented to a
raging mob in a scene of highest
dramatic values. PLATE finally
hands Him over to His enemies.
and, with the Cross on His bleed
ing shoulders, Christ staggers up to
Golgotha to be fastened to the
Cross, to die, pierced by a spear in
realistic manner.
We see Him rise agar from the
tomb. and, in the finest = I'll tab
leaux, ascend to Heaven