History of the Passion Play
26-3-16
It's Easter weekend which means passion plays are going to be happening. I was asked the other day how passion plays came about? They actually have a quite interesting historical significance to the world of the theatre. Passion plays are part of a very large group of religious plays known as pageant plays or morality plays. They are a community based project based in the Christian faith that came about during the 14th century. In fact, they are the only form of theatre from the Dark Ages, as all other forms of performance were banned by the Catholic church. This is also one of the few types of theatre that was fully supported by the Church in the history of the art form. The plays were used as tools to teach the community about the stories of the Bible. (Not a lot of people could read at that time...)
Passion plays are typically performed on Good Friday. They are staged reenactments of the trial, the process of his crucifixion and Jesus' death. Typically, you do not see Christ rise at a passion play. You have to attend church on Sunday to see the second part of the play where he rises from the dead. They leave you at a cliff hanger to get your butts in the seats on Sunday. (Not that we don't know how this story ends.) They are performed all over the world, especially in heavily Catholic nations. In 2004, Mel Gibson directed a controversial movie version of the passion play aptly called, The Passion of the Christ.
The sets are simple. The only requirements one needs are the three crosses. The costumes are also relatively simple. A lot of churches reuse the same costumes over and over- saving money and producing practically the same play every year. Some churches have a cast of over one hundred people in their passion plays. The Guiness Book of Records holder for the largest one ever was in the Phillipines in 2006 with a cast of over 600 people involved. It's a ritual experience for a lot of people to attend a passion play at Easter, similar to attending a nativity play at Christmas time. Depending on what type of church you attend different parts of the story may be focused on. Catholic passion plays seem to really focus on the suffering part. Baptist ones always seem to focus on the sacrifice aspect. A lot of scripts are available online for free.
A passion play like all morality plays is religious in nature. The purpose of the play is to teach a lesson from the Bible. Sets, acting, lighting...all of this comes second to faith and sending a message to your audience. They often come across as contrived to people who didn't grow up with them as tradition. And there's a large sector of the scholarly community who believes that all pageant plays are blatant propaganda for the Church.
The controversy behind passion plays is something to note but the fact that it's an art form that has survived since the 14th century is not something to ignore. People love them and attend them annually even though they know the stories backwards/forwards. A whole theme park in Florida called The Holy Land was based on the concept of creating a theme park around the idea of pageant plays. It brings in an annual income of 8 million dollars a year to its founder, The Trinity Church.
People obviously have a lot of passion for passion plays.
Comments
Kevin Williams
Nice article! Very informative.
29 March 2013