Oberammergau Passion Play Experience

Glad to read that everything went well for you and that you enjoyed Oberammergau. Nearby Ettal (I hope you had a chance to see the beautiful monastery) is one of my favorite weekend destinations, but this summer I will have to avoid it for obvious reasons.

I saw the - at that time still somewhat antisemitic colored - Passion Play 42 years ago, and against this background

I see a lot of questions on here about the play… I’m happy to answer what I can!

Is it true that Chr. Stückl's production is driving traditional Catholics out of the church en masse? ;) Have a nice trip!

We have vouchers for dinner at hotel wolf the night before and the evening between performances. We did this 2 years ago when we bought our tickets. Do we still need to make dinner reservations or are the vouchers/paperwork good enough to get us seats for dinner?

sla019–

I‘m not Catholic, but I wouldn’t expect the play to drive anyone out of the church.

derek—

We had vouchers for Hotel Wolf for both meals. They asked us what time we were going to eat dinner the first night when we checked in, but they told us just to come after the afternoon performance ended on the second night. You shouldn’t need a reservation the first night. It seems like they tightly regulate numbers at each restaurant in Oberammergau. The Hotel Wolf host turned away someone in front of us who had a voucher for another hotel restaurant. Dinner is a set salad + choice of 3 entrees (meat, fish, vegetarian) + set dessert. My friend and I both thought the food was good.

I’m staying at Hotel Wolf next week. My dinner voucher is at a different hotel though. I bought my package in 2019. I’m getting so excited.

I already said this once, but I will say it again -- I really liked Hotel Wolf. Very nice staff. Clean rooms.

I’m so glad you got to go. We are trying to evaluate if we’ll be able to use our August tickets purchased in 2020 and exchanged for 2022 tickets. We no longer have our hotel booked as we did not purchase a package in 2020. One question I have is about trains to Oberammergau and how crowded they were for you. If we do go in August (already going to be in England, so close) we’d probably have to stay pretty far from Oberammergau and take the train back to our yet booked hotel on the night of the play.

Trains were fairly full but not overflowing. Our show ended at 10:30 pm. There is an 11:16 pm departure from the train station — Oberammergau is at the end of the line. There was a bus service of some sort too, but I‘m not sure what it covered.

Hi Dave,

Can you advise what the seating areas are like, ie are they all covered?
Thanks

Thanks for the information. I’ll be attending in mid July.

Dona—

The stage is open to the sky above, but the auditorium is covered. I was in row 25 — great row, by the way due to having an aisle in front of it. All the seating in front of me and behind me was very well-covered, though I‘m not 100% certain about the first few rows of the auditorium.

We are going to Oberrammergau Passion Play July 12 - 14 with Tickets to Play on 12. Anyone here going on the same days?

The play is in German, right? Is there English translation, or how does that work?

The Play is performed in German, but there is a small book that has all the text in it in English. I found it fairly easy to follow along. The book is included in your ticket price, so you do not have to pay extra for the book is included in packages that include lodging and can be purchased separately (see below) if only a ticket to the play was purchased (edit). It was given to us at the same time as our ticket at the place of lodging (edit).

The English text worked well for us for Act 1. But as darkness fell in Act 2, it was hard to read. We used the light from our cell phones to illuminate the pages so we could continue to follow along.

We are attending the Passion Play in mid Sept. What kind of clothing is appropriate for the performance--- winter-weight clothes? What type of clothing is appropriate for Germany for day/ night temperatures?

The text book is included if you purchased a package. If you only have tickets it is €6.00.

Julie,
I had a package. I assumed the book came with the ticket. Thanks for the correction.

Now that I have attended, I'll answer questions. The text for English is in a book for 6 Euro. It is purchased right in the front of the venue (cash only). You can follow the book for act 1, but not act 2 as mentioned above due to darkness. The play was long if you don't understand German, very long. I'm not sure why they don't have translation/closed captioning on a monitor above the stage with a few other languages. The text translation does help, but following along, you miss other aspects of the play.

The whole venue is covered.

Row 25 on the right (and probably left) side would be a great location because there is a huge walkway in front of the seats for leg room. We had row 24 near the center, and it was excellent too. The seat bottom gets uncomfortable for that long.

The whole thing runs 5+ hours, with a 3 hour intermission, which you very much should have a reservation for dinner someplace.

We drove a car. There is plenty of parking if you get there a couple hours early and have lunch someplace. You pay 5 Euro at the parking lot at a kiosk, and can ride the short trip on the bus both ways. The whole thing is easy.

If no lodging in town, I would suggest an AirBnB in one of the surrounding towns. Bad Kohlgrub is only a 10 minute drive, and I can suggest a place privately for about $150/nt. (I have no affiliation with it)

If I missed some questions, or there are more, I'll try to answer.

Thanks for the additional insight. I sat in row 25 on the right. It was great! And I had an empty seat beside me, and a friend on the other side. What luck!

Thanks for this information. I’m attending in late July. The English translation booklet will be great to have.

Thanks for info on driving and parking there. My lodging reservations are about 40 minutes out of town. I'm wondering if anyone has information on traffic when it's time to leave?! I could get a place in town, if needed. I'm sure that would be easier to just walk "home" afterward.