1. History

According to tradition, a plague that swept Germany in 1633 spared the Bavarian village of Oberammergau, and in gratitude for their deliverance the townspeople promised to honor God by performing a play the following year that depicted the death of Jesus (Passion, Account of the; Religious Drama). In following years the town repeated the play, and now, almost four centuries later, it still continues to do so every ten years.

The 2000 production involved six months of performances that attracted nearly 500,000 …