Passionsspielhaus/Passion Play Theater - Oberammergau
N 47° 35.955 E 011° 03.681
32T E 654951 N 5273818
Oberammergau Passion Play is performed since 1634 as a tradition, by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau in Bavaria.
Waymark Code: WMF1N
Location: Bayern, Germany
Date Posted: 06/17/2006
Views: 108
The town vowed that if God were to spare them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging the region, they would perform a play every ten years depicting the life and death of Jesus. The death rate among adults rose from one in October 1632 to twenty in the month of March 1633. The adult death rate slowly subsided to one in the month of July 1633. They were spared after they kept their part of the vow when the play was first performed in 1634. The most recent performance was in 2000.
The play, now performed repeatedly over the course of five months, during the first year of each decade, involves over 2000 performers, all of whom are residents of the village. The play comprises spoken dramatic text, musical and choral accompaniment and tableaux vivants. The tableaux vivants are scenes from the Old Testament depicted for the audience by motionless actors accompanied by verbal description.
The Oberammergau play has a running time of approximately seven hours. A meal is served during the intermission of the play. Audiences come from all over the world, often on package tours, the first instituted in 1870. Admission fees were first charged in 1790. Since 1930, the number of visitors has ranged from 420,000 to 530,000.
There were at least two years in which the scheduled performance did not take place. In 1770, Oberammergau was informed that all passion plays in Bavaria had been banned by order of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Elector, Maximillian Joseph at the behest of the Catholic Church. In 1780, the play was retitled The Old and New Testament. The new Elector, Karl Theodore, having been assured that the play was "purged of all objectionable and unseemly matter" approved the performance of the play. By 1830, the Catholic Church succeeded in halting the performance of all other passion plays in Bavaria. Only Oberammergau remained.
Other theatrical works are performed in this theater when the Passion Play is not being performed.
Theater Name: Passionsspielhaus - Oberammergau
Country: Germany
Address:
Ottmar-Weiß-Straße
Oberammergau, Baveria Germany
82487
Web Site: [Web Link]
Venue: Other (specify in narrative)
Type of Productions:
Summer theater and the Passion Play once every 10 years.
Restored Building: no
Date of Construction: 1930 (Renovated 1999)
Architect/Designer: Georg Johann Lang and Raimund Lang
Stage Type: Outdoor
Seating Capacity: 4700
Special Productions/Events/Festivals:
Passion Play once very 10 years. The next one is in 2010.
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