Religion: Script Trouble at Oberammergau

Weeding out the anti-Semitism

Nine years out of ten, the peasants who live in the mountain-ringed Bavarian village of Oberammergau (pop. 4,800) devote themselves mainly to such tasks as herding cows, carving wooden figurines and drinking beer. Every tenth year, however, Oberammergau is transfigured into the site of the world-renowned Passion Play put on by a cast and crew of 1,400 villagers. So it has been ever since the 17th century, when the pageant was started after an epidemic of bubonic plague. During the last run in 1970, the 93 performances of the daylong...

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