Samuel French, Inc. The House of Plays & Musical Plays for Over 175 Years

Passion Play (Sarah Ruhl)
[29778]

$9.95

[Performance licensing rights may be restricted in your area. Please, email info@samuelfrench.com for up-to-date licensing information and availability.]
ISBN 978-0-573-69908-5
Sarah Ruhl

Dramatic Comedy

8m, 3f (with doubling)

Hailed by the New Yorker’s John Lahr as “extraordinary”, “bold”, and “inventive”, Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play takes us behind the scenes of three communities attempting to stage the death and resurrection of Christ. From Queen Elizabeth’s England to Hitler’s Germany to Reagan’s America, Ruhl’s exploration of devotion takes us on a humorous yet unsettling journey filled with lust, whimsy, and a lot of fish.

This intimate epic occurs at the timely intersection of politics and religion. Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergua, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagan’s presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background, as Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, and Reagan each appear, played by a single commanding actor.

Named one of the "Ten Best Plays of 2008" by The New Yorker

”Her [Ruhl's] unmistakable voice — poetic and quirky, underpinned with serious feeling and even more serious intelligence — trumpets forth in brash, impressive form in this ambitious and frisky if sometimes unruly play.” —New York Times.

“Ruhl’s voice seems to retreat beyond the sphere of the play, performing that special vanishment that good writers—and good gods—know best how to do….Critic’s Pick!” -Time Out NY

”Let's just get the superlatives out of the way. Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play is the most exciting, stimulating, and thrilling piece of theater to hit New York since Angels in America.” -Backstage

FEE: $100 per performance
[Performance licensing rights may be restricted in your area. Please, email info@samuelfrench.com for up-to-date licensing information and availability.]

CHaracter Descriptions:
The full play requires eleven actors. Each actor retains a semblance of his or her role when the play jumps in time and space. For example, Pontius the Fish Gutter becomes a Foot Soldier in Part Two, and a Vietnam vet named “P” in Part Three. There is some flexibility in how the Carpenters and Machinist are reincarnated in Part Three. The play is an ensemble piece, and all the players help to create the world of the play within the play.

Part One England, 1575
PONTIUS THE FISH GUTTER (plays Pontius Pilate and Satan)
JOHN THE FISHERMAN (plays Jesus and Adam)
MARY 1 (plays the Virgin Mary and Eve)
MARY 2 (plays Mary Magdalen)
VISITING FRIAR
VILLIAGE IDIOT
CARPENTER 1, SAM (plays the angel Gabriel)
CARPENTER 2, SIMON (plays Joseph)
DIRECTOR
MACHINIST (plays an emperor)
QUEEN ELIZABETH

Part Two Germany, 1934
FOOTSOLDIER (plays Pontius Pilate)
ERIC (plays Jesus)
ELSA (plays the Virgin Mary)
MARY 2 (plays Mary Magdalen)
VISITING ENGLISHMAN, OR SIMON LILLY
VIOLET
CARPENTER 1, JOHANN
CARPENTER 2/ LUDWIG
DIRECTOR, ROCHUS SCHALLHAMMER
GERMAN OFFICER
HITLER

Part Three South Dakota, 1969–the present
P (plays Ponitus Pilate and Satan)
J (plays Jesus)
MARY 1 (plays the Virgin Mary)
MARY 2 (plays Mary Magdalen)
VA PSYCHIATRIST
VIOLET
CARPENTER1/ENSEMBLE
CARPENTER 2/ENSEMBLE
DIRECTOR
YOUNG DIRECTOR
PRESIDENT REAGAN, QUEEN ELIZABETH, HITLER

Other Sarah Ruhl titles available from Samuel French include:
The Clean House
Eurydice
Dead Man's Cell Phone
In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play

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