Oberammergau

...There were all sorts of people and a multiplicity of languages wa9 heard...

...Criticism of the acting seems to those deeply impressed with the devotional character of the rendition almost lacking in reverence...

...Those who came to the play favorably disposed felt deeply the religious lessons of it...

...The supreme moment of the morning was that which followed the words: "This is My Body...

...A physician would be likely to think of it as some form of influenza which has been with us for several thousand years, recurring every generation...

...The first surprise, especially for those who had been there before, was the simple, supremely impressive new auditorium and stage provided for this occasion...

...Interest in religion dying...

...Deeper feelings were apparent and it was clear that most visitors were intent on an almost religious observance...

...The crowd was all seated to the moment and marvelously still, though they sat through three and a half hours in the morning and more than that in the afternoon...

...What an amusing historical error lies in the suggestion that the Bible was kept from the people when the story of it was so impressively presented even for those who could not read, by these old time plays given in many different places throughout Europe...

...When the tragedy of Calvary was completed there was a sense of relief for, after all, it was a "happy fault" that led to it...

...We all came away persuaded that happiness can come into the lives of the simple and humble that may be missed in the busy haunts of the sophisticated...

...I had seen the Passion Play in 1900, and in discussing this year's presentation with Peter Rendl, this year's Peter, and the John of 1900, I was quite frank in saying that comparison seemed odious...

...This spectacle gave the note of preparation for the Passion Play better than anything else...

...Christ's own words were that when He should be lifted up on the Cross, He would draw all men to Him, and this is eminently exemplified in the widespread appeal the Passion Play has for people of our time...

...The little town took marvelously good care of us...

...One thing was impressed upon us, that this was no mere dramatic spectacle that was drawing the crowd...

...During the midday intermission there was a distinct sense of recollection noteworthy in nearly all the attendants on the play...

...Even people of the nearby German cities find it difficult to secure seats...

...But we became so wrapt up in the old, old story as it impressively unfolded itself in the speech and action of the villagers, that we never thought of the time or of fatigue...

...The large Baroque church of the seventeenth century was crowded to the doors and out into the neighboring churchyard...

...Mary's poignant words, "Mein Sohn," just when the audience had come to realize how near was the tragedy ahead, sent a thrill through hearts, that was not theatrical but deeply religious...

...The silence that settled down for some moments over the vast crowd could almost be felt...

...The profound feelings of this nucleus of spectators spread unconsciously to all others...

...The Crucifixion and the successive last words were so deeply impressive that audible sighs of sympathy could be heard, yet with a suppression that made them almost breathless...

...It was as if they felt that while the relief afforded by the interval was gracious, it must not be permitted to break the sense of the reality of the tragedy of Calvary that was being enacted...

...The Oberammergau play proves by historical research to come from the middle-ages...

...As I went out, a priest, a college professor for many years, a writer and teacher of distinction, said to me: "That was as good as a week's retreat...

...We were going to a little Tyrolese village where for some three hundred years the villagers have been giving the dramatic story of the Passion of the Lord in fulfilment of a vow made in the hope of relief from a plague which had been carrying off the inhabitants of the village for some months...

...Everywhere throughout Europe people are talking of it, even in gay Paris and busy London, as well as the less important cities...

...There is a glamor of reminiscence about Anton Lang, the distinguished prologuist of this year, who in 1900 played Christus for the first time...

...There was a true lifting up of hearts to higher things...

...It is easy to comprehend how the simpler people of the older time were deeply impressed by presentations of the Bible story by their fellows...

...Some idea of the devotional quality of the presentation may be given by a few words about especially impressive parts of the play...

...But that attitude of mind no longer prevails, for many of us feel our relationship to Judas and, conscious of being traitors ourselves, we feel deeply for him in his remorse and eventual despair...

...Christianity dwindling in its appeal...

...The drama has degenerated from its high origin, but surely the spectacle presented by the crowding thousands who are making their way to Oberammergau this year make it clear that the salvation of dramatics for the modern world will come not from destructive criticism, but from definite efforts to present in true dramatic literary form the old Christian principles of living which have deep human appeal at all times...

...Railing after railing was filled, so that surely one half of those who attended the play received Communion...

...No such expressions are justified in view of the interest that the humble woodcarvers of the little Tyrolese town have aroused in the world of our day and above all among the intellectual folk of our generation...

...The simplest minded, even the children, must have learned their Scripture in unforgettable fashion...

...We were all wondering as we drew near, what the little town of some three thousand people would do with more than thrice its usual population during the week end from Saturday at supper time till breakfast on Monday, which is the conventional stay of the visitors for the play...

...The old church made a wonderful setting for a devout crowd of worshipers that came not only for Mass but for Communion...

...One was quite as impressive as the other...

...The trip was uncomfortably hot, but everyone took the discomfort with good humor as real pilgrims bent on a mission that might be expected to demand some self-sacrifice...

...Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile, believers and unbelievers joined for a moment, it seemed, in an act of supreme worship...

...Alois Lang, the Christus of this year, was extremely satisfying and was the equal of Anton Lang that first time, though perhaps not the seasoned Christus of the latter's rendition of the character in 1922...

...Practically everyone proclaims the Judas of this year, Guido Mayr, the best actor of the play, but it seems to me that not a little of the very favorable impression which he produces is due to the audience's sympathy with the character he portrays...

...But then every through train was crowded, with passengers standing in the aisles even for long distances...

...There seems no doubt that the Oberammergau play is going to be a far greater success this year than ever before...

...Guido Mayr gives a magnificent rendition, and the character helps to make him, after Christus, the outstanding figure of the play...

...Travelers of all kinds are either coming from or going to it...

...Usually trains are very comfortable in this part of the world, especially since the war, and seats in the compartments ensure agreeable travel even though traveling companions may be somewhat broadly gifted by nature and good eating...

...There are those who say that religion is dwindling in its influence over men in our day, but here were over five thousand people closing in on the little town of Oberammergau for the next rendition of the Passion Play some three hundred years later...

...It would seem as though everybody who went to Europe this year felt the trip incomplete without the experience of Oberammergau...

...It was proof that the occasion was no mere theatrical spectacle but an act of heartfelt devotion...

...The parting of the Blessed Virgin with her Son left scarcely a dry eye in the house...

...We were all on our way to the Passion Play...

...It began its ravages in the late fall, according to the story, and ceased—either through prayer or better weather—about the end of Lent, the following spring, just after the first presentation of the play...

...In the middle-ages at the mystery plays, they used to scoff and jeer at Judas...

...For anyone who wants to understand the origin of modern drama in Church ceremonial, which developed into the mystery plays in the middle-ages, the secret is here...

...To understand just what this silent immobility meant, one could have to have been at Mass in the village church at six o'clock that Sunday morning...

...Do this for a commemoration of Me...

...In anticipation eight hours of attention had seemed tedious and many Catholics were persuaded that their familiarity with the story would permit them to leave for a while during the performance and return to take up the thread a little later...

...With the Tyrolese mountains for a background seen above the proscenium, it was easy to be transported in spirit to the Judean hills...

...At that time I stopped for the week-end at the house of her parents, and found her a simple village girl for whom the rehearsing of the play had brought out depths of character that would otherwise have been quite latent...

...Oberammergau left an unforgettable memory...

...Already nearly a dozen presentations had been given this year, and there will be several score more, but several weeks ahead all of the 5,300 seats for the Sunday performance are sold and the play is to be repeated on Monday because there are so many clamoring for tickets...

...Mary Magdalen is another character that excites sympathy, but not even this year's Magdalen would be thought greater than that of Bertha Wolf of thirty years ago...