OBERAMMERGAU OF THE PASSION PLAY

Already people are beginning to plan to attend the Passion Play at Oberammergau. The little village lies in the midst of the Bavarian mountains, and from the moment you arrive you feel that you have been transported to a new world. The very porter who shoulders your bag to your villa (as likely as not you will be lodging with Pontius Pilate, or St. John the Divine) has the face and flaxen curls of an angel, though in earthly form he wears the embroidered costume of these parts. As you walk the streets you will meet with men and women who, for all you know, have stepped from the pages of the New Testament. Yet with all this there is not a hint of artificiality, not a suggestion of anything in the least theatrical. The performance of their parts in the Passion Play is as natural a part of the lives of these good villagers as are the wood-carving and pottery-making, or other humble crafts which they pursue. Almost the entire population is engaged in their production. "Make-up" is a thing unknown, and the flowing hair of the Christus and his disciples is in every instance the gift nature.