D.C. sees ‘Passion Play’

A new four-hour take on the centuries-old Passion play that tells the story of the last days of Jesus Christ will have its world premiere today at Arena Stage here.

It’s the work of Sarah Ruhl, a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize with “The Clean House.” That play recently was performed at Washington’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre and is scheduled for at least 10 other performances this season, including six shows in the United States, four in Canada and one in England.

“Passion Play, a cycle” originally was envisioned as three separate performances, but is being compressed into a four-hour program. It deals with the Bible story and intertwines the biblical characters with the lives of the play’s actors.

The first act considers the story as it might have been performed in a small British town more than 400 years ago. Queen Elizabeth I makes an appearance to forbid -- as in fact she did -- the dramatization of Bible stories. She considered them too sympathetic to the Roman Catholic Church that her father, Henry VIII, had repudiated.

The second act depicts a performance in Oberammergau, Germany, the most famous of Passion play towns. Adolf Hitler shows up to emphasize the anti-Semitic lines. The two acts have been produced separately in England.

That angle has aroused misgivings among some Arena patrons, prompting director Molly Smith to respond.

“Many have raised concerns that our production will be anti-Semitic, as the traditional Passion play has a complicated and sometimes discriminatory history,” she wrote in an e-mail to patrons. “But nothing could be further from the truth. Sarah’s play argues for tolerance, not against it. This is especially evident in the play’s moving second act, which takes place in Nazi Germany and demonstrates in no uncertain terms the disastrous effect on the Jewish people of Hitler’s rise to power.”

A new last act is set in Spearfish, S.D., which puts on a Passion play. It includes an actor playing President Reagan.