Last month a little mountain town in Germany, not far from Munich, was alive with people: hundreds of them, crowded round a noticeboard like schoolboys waiting anxiously to see the publication of examination results. But these weren’t schoolboys, and the stakes were higher than an exam grade. They were the citizens of Oberammergau, about to find out which of them had landed which roles for the Passion Play that will engulf the town in 2020 – as it did in 2010, 2000, 1990 and (with one or two exceptions and a shift in counting) every 10 years back to 1634.
2:10 PM
Behind the scenes at the world’s most celebrated Passion Play
Every ten years, half the population of the small town of Oberammergau appears in the spectacular production
Michael White
7 min read
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