In the fall of 1990, one of our Texas friends, Louree Greehey, called Vertis and told her about a European vacation trip she and Bill were going to take next spring.
One of the destinations was to Oberammergau, Germany to see a passion play. According to Louree, the Oberammergau Passion Play is world famous, and she had two extra tickets. She invited us to meet them there to see the play. We were planning to vacation in Europe, so it was a why not? It could easily be worked in.
The trip was in late spring and Louree said we would need a warm jacket. The play was in an open air theater in northern Germany, and it lasted over 5 hours.
Our vacation was to see several of the countries which after the Berlin Wall fell had become very pro-Western. We were going to start in Zagreb, Croatia, then drive to Budapest, Hungary where we would meet Bill and Louree, then drive on to Oberammergau where our vacation would end.
Zagreb was our first stop, and the first thing we noticed -- outside of being impressed by one of the largest pedestrian squares in Europe -- was a long line stretching down the block from one of the stores. A closer look, and we determined the line was to buy blue jeans at the Levi Store. It was easy to see the folks were eager to be involved in Western culture.
Then it was on to Budapest, and we had rooms at a new Hilton Hotel. Everything was going fine until we tried to check-in. We had a junior suite, which is just a bedroom with a seating area. The manager told us the room would be ready in 30 minutes, but an hour later, it seemed they were fully booked, and only one room was available. I figured it would be a step down, but it was a step up -- a big step!
"I'm going to upgrade you to the Presidential Suite. It will be for the same price as your original reservation."
We took the hotel elevator to the top floor of the hotel, and when we stepped into the suite our mouths dropped open. The suite took up most of the top floor, with a lavish bathroom, a dining room with a grand table that would seat 10, and of course a fabulous main living room.
Our Texas friends were to meet us the next day, and we would travel together to Oberammergau. I looked at Vertis, smiled, and said, "Don't tell the Greeheys we were upgraded."
When they arrived I tried to just act as if this was the room we requested, but after they walked into the dining room, with its grand table set for 10, and Bill looked at me shaking his head, I couldn't keep a straight face, and we told them the about the upgrade.
The next day it was on to the small Bavarian village of Oberammergau. We had reservations in a small bed and breakfast inn very near the outdoor theater where the passion play was held.
Before we left on vacation, I had checked out the history of the play, and it goes back three centuries. The stories abound how during the Bubonic Plague, as the plague hit the little village and people started dying, the remaining villagers gathered and prayed that if the plague stopped, the village would put on a passion play about the life of Christ every ten years, and according to the story, after that no one died from the Plague. In 1633 the first play was held in the church courtyard.
The current production involves over 2,000 performers, musicians and stage technicians, all residents of the village, and you must have lived in the village for several years. You can't just move there to be in the play.
The play comprises spoken, dramatic text, musical and choral accompaniments and scenes from the Old Testament and New Testament that vary from a scene with only a few individuals to a huge choral scene with several hundred singers and actors filling the large stage. The running time when we attended the play was over five hours, with a lunch break.
The passion play is held in an outdoor theater with seating for just under 5,000. I was immediately impressed with the huge stage, which, we found out later, was because with the cast, choir and actors, sometimes there were several hundred individuals on stage.
We took our seats and Vertis, who had brought her Bible, turned to the Gospel of John. Then at nine o'clock the play began.
The orchestra and chorus started the play, as the curtain opened with a tableau of an Old Testament scene with what looked like an old master painting of several dozen ancient figures frozen in place. Then the curtain closed and other Old Testament scenes filled the stage, then at least an hour later, after more tableaux, there was a live scene with Jesus on a real donkey entering Jerusalem pushing through a stage full of hundreds of ecstatic palm-waving people.
It was breathtaking!
What immediately caught my attention, almost from the start of the play, was the clothing, especially that of the Temple priests. It was so authentic that for a second, you believed you were viewing ancient Jerusalem.
After about two and a half hours, it was time for a two hour lunch break. Everyone was given a lunch ticket with a restaurant name on it.
It was a long lunch break, and as we finished up a very tasty typical German meal, we shopped at several adjacent stores. We zeroed in on a store that had wooden nativity carvings, and as we purchased the carving from the owner, he checked his watch and hurriedly said, "I've got to go! I'm John the Baptist!"
As Vertis flipped the pages of her Bible, the scenes changed, and suddenly as the curtain was raised, Jesus was running the money changers out of the Temple. Then the scenes changed quickly with the trial by the Sanhedrin and then before Pilate.
As the curtain was raised again, Jesus was carrying the Cross, and for the first time, the chorus appeared in traditional black mourning garb. There was no tableau.
On the cross, Jesus was mocked by the soldiers, and uttered his last words. The legs of the criminals were broken. A soldier pierced the side of Christ with a lance and blood gushed forth.
Then a scene I will never forget: Jesus's disciples, very slowly and reverently, took down the body of Jesus and laid it in the lap of his mother. A replica of the "Pieta."
The Sanhedrin insist that guards be posted before the tomb, which is to hold Christ's body, and then the scene changed as Roman guards saw a light at the tomb. Mary Magdalene and the other women encounter an angel, and the angel said, "He is not here! He is risen!"
The final tableau shows Jesus resplendent in white with his apostles, angels, the Virgin Mary and Moses. The Passion Play ends with a proclamation by the chorus.
"He is risen!"
Richard Mason is an author and speaker. He can be reached at [email protected].