By CNS and staff reporters
IT was a different world when Frederik Mayet last spoke to The Catholic Leader in 2019 as he prepared to play Jesus in the world-famous Oberammergau Passion Play.
Mr Mayet was visiting Australia to promote the 2020 Oberammergau Passion Play, sipping coffee in a trendy inner-city café and talking about his major role in a stage production that attracts half a million visitors when it is performed every ten years in his tiny Bavarian hamlet.
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 event – but now, two years later, 41-year-old Mr Mayet, will have his chance to play Jesus – for a second time – when the 2022 season starts on May 14.
This year’s Oberammergau Passion Play will run five days every week until October 2, during which Mr Mayet will alternate in the role of Jesus with 25-year-old Rochus Rückel.
Mr Mayet, who was born in Oberammergau, will be taking part for the third time. In 2010, he played Jesus for the first time; in 2000, he portrayed St John.
Interviewed in his home village as he prepared for the season, the father of two said the role of Jesus is demanding.
“Physically, the scenes with the scourging and the Way of the Cross, and hanging on the cross for 20 minutes, are quite exhausting,” he said.
It is necessary to find distance from the role offstage, he noted. “It’s important at the end of the evening to leave that role behind, and chat with friends about football or whatever over a beer.
“In the context of acting in the play, one shouldn’t over-identify with Jesus, but see it as a role which one tries to interpret as well as possible.”
Mr Mayet said a person grows into that role.
“You try to just play your part well and do it justice, because you know there are people coming from all over the world to see the play,” he said.
“So that gives you a ‘positive stress,’ which carries you. I concentrate on playing my role well and on speaking clearly.”
To get the role of Jesus, “you must have some acting talent, and a good voice. There’s also the physical appearance — to play Jesus, you must have a certain look, and be of the right age, between your mid-20s and early 40s. I’m now 41,” Mayet said.
Since almost all cast members are amateur actors, it might have helped that Mayet has a professional theatre background — he is an art director and media officer at the Münchner Volkstheater in Munich.
“But we also perform stage plays in years in Oberammergau when there are no Passion Plays, so people get to know one another, and the director gets a sense of who is capable of what.”
Every role is cast with two actors, who perform on alternate days.
The Passion Play dates back to 1634 and is normally staged only every 10 years.
Only natives or long-term residents of the picturesque village in the Bavarian Alps, about 58 miles southwest of Munich, may act in the play.
While the parts were already cast in 2019 in anticipation for the postponed 2020 play, rehearsals for this year’s run began in January.
For the 2100 people who take part in the Passion Play as cast members, crew or chorus, the event requires a lot of individual sacrifices.
“Everybody has a day job, so rehearsals take place in the evenings or on weekends,” Mr Mayet said.
“Many people take leave or work short hours during the Passion Play season between May and October.”
Oberammergau is traditionally a solidly Catholic village, where many of the famous murals on house facades depict biblical scenes or Mary. But in more recent times, the village has become more pluralistic.
“The Catholic faith characterises Oberammergau, but we also have Protestants and Muslims in our community, and everybody gets together and participates in the Passion Play,” Mr Mayet said.
“This year, for the first time, we have Muslims taking part.
Prayer is still an important feature behind the scenes.
“Before every performance there’s a group prayer, led by either the Catholic or Protestant chaplain, and the Our Father is also said.
“Of course, there are some who have left the church, and they might not take part in the prayer, but at the Passion Play the religious is always present, and the churches are always involved.”
This year’s run of the Passion Play will be the first Mr Mayet’s sons, ages seven and three, will experience.
“I’m looking forward to sharing that experience with them. I hope that they may grow into this tradition. This year, on days when I’m not playing Jesus, I’ll introduce them to the stage.”
And how long does Mayet want to take part in the play? “I hope until I’m over 80, but obviously I don’t know. As long as possible. … I hope to be on stage every 10 years; it just is part of my life.”
He will be too old to play Jesus in the next run, but “there are many other interesting roles I’d like to play after having been Jesus twice — maybe I could play a villain for a change, like Pontius Pilate!”
