Day C--Oberammergau

Our Hotel.

Up and out of our hotel in Innsbruck, we were again the last couple on the bus (but still before the departure time).  The bus ride to Oberammergau was fairly nice and we got into town about 10-11, pulling right up to our hotel.  It was a cute little place, and all of the rooms were ready…except two (guess which two?).  M&MA’s room was ready in just a few minutes so we dropped our things in their room and we headed for the walking tour. 

It is a very pretty little town, with lots of quaint Bavarian/Alpine looking buildings.  Many of them had beautiful frescos with ornate scenes.  We will include a selection, but not each one!  We did some looking for souvenirs, but things were priced for tourists on a once in a lifetime trip.  Part of the tour included a stop at the visitor center where they had a very nice display and history of the play.

The theatre and visitor center.

In the 1600s, Central Europe was in the throes of the 30 years war.  The Swedes had invaded all the way down to this region, and brought the Black Plague with them.  Oberammergau closed off their city and even built fires around themselves, to keep out the foreigners and their plague.  Well, a man from a nearby village had family here, and wanted to check on them, so he snuck in, and purportedly brought the plague to the city.  After death rates climbed, in 1633 the city leaders ask the Virgin Mary to spare them from any more deaths, and vowed to perform the Passion Play every ten years thereafter.  Not one person died after the vow.  So, in 1634 they had their first Passion Play.  By about 1700, there were over 250 Passion plays in the region, but some had gotten out of hand, so the Bavarian government started restricting them (but Oberammergau was permitted to continue).  After 1674, they decided to move the play to the beginning of the decade, so from 1680 forward it was on the ‘0’s, with only 3 exceptions.  Due to the ”Spanish Flu”, 1920’s performance was delayed two years to 1922.  Then 1940 was canceled.  And 2020 was delayed for …well…  In about 1880, Thomas Cook (a pioneer in adventure travel tourism) came and saw the play, and began arranging tour groups.  More celebrities came, so by 1900, there were visitors from around the world.  It ballooned from there!

There was a special speaker to talk to us about the performance, so we waited to see who it might be.  It was the actor playing “Jesus”!!  He spoke a little bit giving us the history and some context, and then took questions.  This was his second time to play that part, and prior to that, he played the Apostle John (when he was 20).  He was quite happy to talk to all of us and even take pictures.  It was funny how down to earth he seemed.  And he shared that his 7 year old son had a part in the play, as a server for the Last Supper (we saw him!).  The town has about 5000 people, and about 1800 of them are directly involved in the play.

It looks like a "Tonka Truck"!

80% of us (Theresa's Mom was supposed to be with us).

A bunch of police were walking by, and stopped for our group.

A preview of our seats.

The Stars of the Show!!  (ok, one star)

Mike and MaryAnne with "Jesus".

Our room.  Quaint!  (Not Hilton)

Back in the room, we had a break for lunch.  We opted out of the provided lunch and smuggled some food from breakfast, and some “groceries” from Innsbruck. 

It's a "make your own" kind of thing.

We had a balcony.  View to left...

And right!

Not the most surprising thing we found...

Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

We headed to the local church on our way to the play.  It was (again) beautiful!!  The outside did not suggest much, but they spend their decorating budget all on the inside!

Inside of the church.

Oh look!  EVERYBODY is here!!

At the play, we had to go through security.  They separate the men from the women, and the men’s line moved quickly.  At the front, they do a variably thorough pat down, and reject bags or beverages that are too big, a pocketknife, and who knows what else.  Theresa made it through some 10 minutes later. 

Last "licit" picture before the show.

We had awesome seats, smack in the center, near(ish) the front!!  However, there was no photography permitted, so, you will find no evidence of rule breaking here!!  The first half of the play started EXACTLY at 2:30. 

It was sort of a blend of stage acting and choir.  The choir had about 50-80 people at various parts, and the play usually had between 20-60 people on stage at any given time.  Because today fewer people are familiar with the Old Testament, they incorporated some of the critical parts into the choral parts, singing of the story, and showing a diorama scene with the actors holding a fixed (motionless) position for about 3 minutes!  For example, right before the Act that included the Crucifixion, they showed the scene where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his own son (a foreshadowing of God sacrificing His own Son).  They provided a booklet that had the entire dialogue so we could read along in English as they sang in German.  The whole things was very well done.  Of course, in typical German style, the first part ended at 4:59.

The wild haired guy on the left is the Director.
The other wild haired guy played Joseph of Arimathea.

We went back to the hotel for dinner.  The town is very small, with limited food options and even more limited hotels.  So, being able to stay here was a HUGE benefit!!  For dinner, Bill and MaryAnne tried the pork, and Theresa and Mike opted for fish.  They seemed to come around when any part of it was ready, and the kitchen was definitely working in batches.  So, the pork plates ALL came out before ANY of the pasta dishes.  We were almost done with our pork by the time any fish came out.  The lady called “Perch?  Perch?” and Theresa and Mike each raised their hands, but the server put the two plates on the table behind us, so we waited.  Once MaryAnne and Bill were done, and the servers started clearing plates, Mike and Theresa went in search of their dinners.  The woman claimed she come through twice and yadda yadda yadda…M & T got very hot and fresh plates about 10 minutes later.  So, as they started walking through with the apple strudel, we INSISTED they drop four plates at once!  The server said “Oh, I will bring them when you are done, and I clear your plates.”  No.  You will bring them now.  (We were on a time crunch!)  Anyway, dinner was delicious once we got it!

After the last scene.

After dinner, it was back to the play for an 8:00 start.  This time, the ladies got though in like 6 minutes, and Mike and Bill waited about 20.  But we snagged the seat cushions from our room making those wooden seats a little softer, and giving an inch of lift to see over the two tall heads in front of us.

The second part of the play was getting too dark to read the “textbook”, so most of us just watched and listened, and wished we knew what was being said!  For decades, we have heard the “Passion” in Mass at Easter, and it is verbatim from the Gospels, so takes 10-15 minutes.  The play fills in a lot of blanks with dialogues that “could” of occurred.  So, there was a scene where the priests were debating on what to do about Jesus, and Nicodemus was arguing passionately on behalf of Jesus.  This scene went on for over 5 minutes, and we really wanted to know what arguments he was making and the rebuttals of Caiaphas and Anias.  But we have the book, so we’ll have some reading to do later!  All in all, it was a very good experience.  But it was a little strange to hear "Jesus" sounding like a Nazi in a WWII movie.

Instead of ending on time at 10:30, they ran a little long finishing at 10:50pm.  Apparently, the reason given was that they were still trying to adjust the play to end on time, but hadn’t managed it yet.  I can certainly appreciate the desire to artistically add everything, but having to cut begrudgingly…as evidenced by length of some of these posts!  😉

Decisions Decisions...  Hmmm...