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| Dzieic's "A Passion...." |
Passion plays have a long tradition in western Christian culture as a way of teaching the Gospel story via dramatic presentation. There is of course the Oberammergau Passion in Germany and the American one in Spearfish, South Dakota and countless others with their own local traditions. And of course Sarah Ruhl’s “Passion Play” which gives historic and contemporary perspective to the tradition.
My annual Lent/Eastertide tradition has included New York City based Theatre Dzieici’s “A Passion according to Matthew,”originally created on commission for the Abbey of Regina Laudis nuns in Betlehem, Connecticutt in 2012. Dzieci’s “Passion” has become an annual seasonal presence in New York City. During my last years at West Park, our annual "Palms to Passion” service became the Dzieci Passion with costumed company players distributing palms on the street outside the church.
Profoundly moving of and to itself, Dzieci’s Passion appears to be the Nazi era Warsaw ghetto, the company dressed as Eastern European Jews. The text appears as a Torah scroll and is filled with Hebrew…"Yeshua” for Jesus, “Talmudim” for disciples, etc. Jewish liturgical music flows throughout the play. This poses no issue for most Christian audiences, but for those who are veterans of the Jewish-Christian dialogue experience, there is an immediate shock and reaction to what can feel like cultural misappropriation.
Until one takes a closer look.
Dzieci works within the Grotowski theatre tradition which works seriously with archetype, ritual and deep meaning revealing the universal through the distinct particular. With a profound commitment to “service” and social justice. What do we find in Dzieci’s Passion?
As we watch the scroll of Matthew being unrolled within a community setting, hidden away out of sight of their oppressors, one senses that a deeply treasured story is about to be shared, a story to encourage and strengthen the community in a moment of existential fear. It is almost as if this story of a Jewish rebel seized and tortured by an oppressive occupying power had remained a hidden Jewish story never captured by an Empire’s religion. In this way, the passion is returned to its original Jewish roots,
The choice of Matthew is also significant as Raymond Brown and other noted New Testament scholars have noticed that the author of Matthew has structured and grounded his gospel in the Torah with Jesus echoing the journey of Moses and the people Israel. So too, Dzieici’s adaptation of Matthew restores some of its inherent Jewishness.
Throughout the performance, the Tallis (prayer shawl) used to signify Jesus passes from cast member to cast member symbolizing how we all male, female, young old, all…are the betrayed one, the crucified one. And likewise, we all are the betrayers, judges, executioners. (Which is actually a theological perspective of the reformed Christian tradition as well..) By making this an experience an explicitly threatened Jewish community in a very particular place, this passion thus opens its story up for all oppressed communities in any time and place. Dzieci’s Passion creates a place in history, space and time, brings us thoroughly inside of it and thereby makes the story meaningful in any place and time.
This year’s Passion was filmed at Hudson Valley’s Boughton Place and is available on demand one more week at https://dziecitheatre.ticketspice.com/a-passion-on-demand.
