Article: The Theatre Backpacker (www.theatreartlife.com)
OBERAMMERGAU PASSIONSSPIELE: EXPLORING A SACRED THEATRE
By Jack Paterson | Part 10 of 10
Originally published February 17, 2024 at www.theatreartlife.com
Article Link: Exploring a Sacred Theatre – Part 10 (theatreartlife.com)
EPILOGUE
Date: November 2023
Location: Bali, Indonesia
Activity: Cross Cultural Creation
It’s taken me over a year to write this article.
I woke this morning to sunshine and the sound of roosters in my room behind Sanggar Paripurna’s performance space. For the last few weeks, Canadian theatre maker Deneh’Cho Thompson and I have been privileged to work with a group of Balinese artists in the second part of a cross-cultural exchange project.
Over this period, we have attended performances, events, and ceremonies, met with artistic and cultural leaders, and joined in the ongoing work at the Sanggar. Two new Canadian team members, Experience Design and Media artists Joel Grinke and Vanka Salim, will arrive next week.
I sit under the Balinese stars with Sanggar Paripurna artistic director I Made Sidia, and his wife, Swasti – his partner in everything. They are discussing today and tomorrow’s activities.
Tomorrow will begin with traditional gamelan and dance classes for local children. Made is then performing a Topeng dance at a local home in the village. The afternoon will include the company’s performance in The Bali Agung Show at the Safari Marine park. And then there is an evening rehearsal for an upcoming Kecat and more classes.
Swasti will be dancing Sita at an upcoming ceremony, and – like her husband – I can’t imagine her being anything less than transcendent.
Children on the way to class at Sanggar Paripurna – Photo Dale Bertrand
For artists in the Balinese Traditional Performing Arts, the act of creation and performance serve to help find balance in the Tri Loka. Human beings connecting with higher and lower powers, human beings connecting with each other, and human beings connecting with the natural world around them. Highly trained and skilled practitioners work along-side local artists and community members of all ages. It is difficult to find some-one on the island who does not take part in the performing arts in some way.
I ask Made his thoughts.
“For tradition to survive, it must be true to its purpose but also change to meet the needs of the people and the time”, he says.
Later he adds,
“We don’t make art just for us, just for Bali. That’s not enough. We make art for the world.”
Kecat Rehearsal at Sanggar Paripurna – Photo Joel Grinke
Special Thank You to
Christian Stückl, Jenny Greza, and the Oberammergau team for their generosity and openess, Hannah Siden, I Made Sidia and the Sanggar Paripurna company.
Article Links, References & Sources:
A Rabbi’s Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, by Joseph Krauskopf [1901]
https://sacred-texts.com/jud/rio/rio03.htm
Bali: Sanggar Paripurna Webpage:
https://www.facebook.com/sanggarparipurnabona/
Bali: Bali Agung Show
https://www.balisafarimarinepark.com/safari-adventure/bali-agung-show/
How Hitler’s Favorite Passion Play Lost Its Anti-Semitism by A.J. Goldmann (The Atlantic, August 4, 2022)
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/08/oberammergau-passion-play-german-jewish-history/671026/
Meet the director removing anti-Semitism from Oberammergau’s famous Passion play by Andrew Faiz (Broadview Magazine, March 23, 2021)
https://broadview.org/oberammergau-passion-play/
Oberaumagau Passionsspeile:
https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/home
Oberammergau – A Village and its Passion by (DW News, June 28, 2022)
https://www.dw.com/en/oberammergau-a-village-and-its-passion/a-62292895
Oberammergau Passion Play Director Christian Stückl Receives American Jewish Committee Isaiah Award (AJC News, August 10, 2022) https://www.ajc.org/news/oberammergau-passion-play-director-christian-stuckl-receives-american-jewish-committee-isaiah
Of Beards and Bubonic Plague: German Village Prays for a (2nd) Miracle by Katrin Bennhold (New York Times, April 5, 2020)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/world/europe/germany-oberammergau-passion-play-coronavirus.html
Theatre de Zeit: Setting the stage
https://tdz.de/shop/produkt/726bad67-da29-466b-839c-2b3f8a35dbac
Images:
1. Ceremony at ISI Denpasar – Photo Jack Paterson
2. On the way to class at Sanggar Paripurna – Photo by Dale Bertrand
3. Kecat Rehearsal at Sanggar Paripurna – Photo Joel Grinke
Continue Reading The Theatre Backpacker
OBERAMMERGAU PASSIONSSPIELE: EXPLORING A SACRED THEATRE
PROLOGUE or BACK ON THE ROAD (Part 1)
Perhaps because I’m watching a known innovator who values the traditional, sacred, and the new, it seems right to write about another ritual, and another village far from the Balinese sun.
OBERAMMERGAU (Part 2)
The Oberammergau Passionsspiele has been performed every 10 years since 1634. The earliest continuous survivor of the age of Christian religions drama, it’s one of the longest running western performing arts traditions.
OBSERVING REHEARSALS - DAY 1 (Part 3)
The first performance of the Passionsspiele in 1634 was performed on a simple wooden construction at the parish church cemetery over the fresh graves of plague victims.
EXPLORING OBERAMMERGAU (Part 4)
The passionsspiechele echoes through every aspect of Oberammergau. I walk down streets with names like “the kingdom of heaven” or named after past writers and composers of the play.
MUSIC AND TABLEAUX VIVANT (Part 5)
To maintain the unique traditional skill sets needed for the music, the village has multiple choirs and orchestras operating throughout the 10 year gaps between productions.
EVOLVING TO MEET THE TIMES (Part 6)
Widely considered the best part, this year Judas is played this year by 22-year-old actor Cengiz Görür.
FACING THE PAST (Part 7)
With the challenging history of passion plays and the contemporary history of the region, Oberammergau doesn’t hide from its past. Nor does it hide from its responsibilities.
HUMAN STORIES (Part 8)
There is something very German in the aesthetic. Despite the pageantry, ritual, and scale of this project, this is a story about human beings.
LESSONS & REFLECTIONS (Part 9)
In the past , Passion Plays were the few opportunities for local people to engage with their spiritual and religious stories in their own voices.
EPILOGUE (Part 10)
For tradition to survive, it must stay true to its purpose but also evolve to meet the needs of the people and the time