Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Bruce Guland.
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And I'm Nick Page. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Today's Spotlight is on a theatre event that is much more than theatre. The event happens only every ten years. It is an old tradition that began almost four hundred years ago.
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One night in 1632 a man called Kaspar Schisler returned home from a trip. He lived in the mountain village of Oberammergau, in southern Germany. Although Kaspar did not know it, he brought with him a terrible sickness, the bubonic plague.
The plague was a disease that killed millions of people in Europe. But for some time Oberammergau was safe. It was in the mountains, and difficult to reach. Guards stopped people from entering the village. But that night, Kaspar Schisler got past the guards. In a few months he was dead - along with his wife, his children, and many other villagers.
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We now know that the plague is a disease spread by small insects carried by rats. But at that time people did not know this. They believed that the sickness had come because God was not pleased with them. So they decided to try to please God.
The people of Oberammergau met in the church and made a promise. 'If God saves us from this sickness, we promise to perform a play about Jesus Christ, his suffering, his death, and his coming to life again. We will perform this play every ten years.'
The play would tell the story of the last week of the life of Christ. The story is often called 'the Passion'. This story comes from the Christian Bible.
Voice 1
It happened in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago. When Jesus entered the city, the people welcomed him as a hero and a king. However, the religious authorities did not like Jesus' teaching and decided to arrest him. The Bible says that he did not receive a fair trial. The religious authorities sent Jesus to the Governor and demanded that he be executed. The Governor gave in to their pressure, and ordered the execution. Jesus was killed by hanging on a large wooden cross. However, the story does not end there. The Bible says that Jesus came alive again on the third day after he was executed. This is the story that the people of Oberammergau promised to act in a play every ten years.
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It seems that God heard the promise made by the people of Oberammergau. No more people in the village died from the plague. The people believed that this was because of their prayer.
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And so the first 'passion play' in Oberammergau was performed in 1634, in the cemetery. That is the place where the plague victims had been buried.
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Passion plays were common in Europe in those days, but not many have survived to the twenty-first century. 2010 is the 41st season of the Oberammergau passion play. But the play has not remained the same. Different writers and producers have changed and improved the words of the play.
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In 1750 a man named Ferdinand Rosner, wrote a version that was a great success. It appealed to the public of the time. It contained many old stories and blamed Satan, the Devil, for the death of Jesus. However, some people said that it had moved far away from the story as told in the Bible. This led to a ban on passion plays in 1780. However, the people in the village protested against this ban, and a shorter version of the play returned ten years later.
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In the early 1800s a music teacher named Rochus Dedler wrote new music for the play. This music is still played for performances today. Also about that time, the theatre was moved from the cemetery to a field at the edge of the village. Five thousand people could sit in the theatre at one time. Today the theatre is just as big, and it is in the same place.
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Yet another version of the play appeared in 1860. This proved to be a popular version. It was used until the year 2000. By the end of the nineteenth century the play was more true-to-life, and the costumes, the clothes the actors wear, were based on history.
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An interesting tradition at Oberammergau is the 'tableau vivant'. That is a French name, meaning 'living picture'. There are many of these 'living pictures' in the play. For each one, the action of the play stops, the music is played, and a curtain is pulled back to show a group of actors who stand very still. The motionless actors form a living picture. The picture shows a scene from the older part of the Bible - the part that describes God's dealings with people before the birth of Christ. Each picture relates to something that is happening in the play.
Shelagh Godwin writes for Spotlight. She saw the play in 2010. She says:
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'The play is performed in the German language and I did not understand all the words. But I found the living pictures very moving. Seeing the play was a wonderful experience.'
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The late twentieth century brought another change to the passion play. The old version seemed to blame the Jewish people in Jerusalem for Jesus' death. But the 2010 version is careful not to encourage anti-Jewish feelings. This is because of the terrible suffering such ideas caused for Jews during the Second World War.
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Every person who acts in the Oberammergau Passion Play must either have been born in the village, or have lived there for 20 years. A year before the performance the people again make the promise that their ancestors made in 1633. Then the men start growing their hair so that they look like men of the first century, when Jesus lived. Many rehearsals are held during the months before the play.
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Almost every person in the village is involved in some way. Many take part in the play, but others are involved 'behind the scenes' - away from the public eye. Many people also make and sell the objects made from wood. These wooden carvings made the village famous long before the first Passion Play was performed in 1634. It is a long and wonderful tradition, and it continues today.
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The Oberammergau passion play lasts for eight hours. That includes time for the 'living pictures' and a break for people to go and eat! The play is very popular. There are over one hundred performances of the play, yet most seats are sold a year before the event. Maybe it is time to start planning for 2020!