A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the suffering and death of Jesus. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Roman Catholic tradition.
Many different retellings of this story have been produced over the centuries. The most famous is that first performed in 1634 and now performed every ten years at Oberammergau in Germany. The villagers vowed that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then ravaging the region they would perform the story of Christ's Passion every ten years. The play is performed at the start of each decade, i.e. in years ending with a zero (see Oberammergau Passion Play). More than 2000 performers take part, and all are residents of the village.
In Catalonia, Spain, it is common for villages to present different passion plays every Easter, like the one in Olesa de Montserrat, which was first documented in 1538. The 1996 production surpassed the world record for the most people acting onstage at the same time, with 726 persons.
The 2004 film The Passion of the Christ was a film adaptation of the Passion play. The 1989 film Jésus de Montréal presents the staging of a very unorthodox version while the players' lives themselves mirror the Passion.
A Passionplay is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Christ, the suffering and death of Jesus.
The PassionPlays of the 15th century, with their peculiar blending of religious, artistic, and popular elements, gave a true picture of German city life of those times.
The text of the play of Vorderthiersee (Gespiel in der Vorderen Thiersee) dates from the second half of the seventeenth century, is entirely in verse, and comprises in five acts the events recorded in the Gospel, from the Last Supper to the Entombment.
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.
It can be said that the evolution of the PassionPlay was about the same as that of the Easter Play, originating in the ritual of the Latin Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons.
In 1770, Oberammergau was informed that all passionplays in Bavaria had been banned by order of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Elector, Maximillian Joseph at the behest of the Catholic Church.
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