Oberammergau of Africa

by Admin · January 18, 2023

Top: Jesus (played by David Horner) falls on the Way of the Cross in the first performance of the Durban Passion Play in April 1952. (From left) Oblate Father Noel Coughlan, Doreen Lyster, and Archbishop Denis Hurley in 1951/52.

Seventy years ago, Durban staged its first Passion Play, based on the famous version of Oberammergau in Germany. With a new run of performances set for 2023, Wendy Greeff looks at the origins of the Durban Passion Play.

With the Oberammergau Passion Play closing its run of almost five months on October 2, South Africans may look forward to the staging of the Durban Passion Play in 2023.

The Durban Passion Play was set to be performed in 2020, but had to be cancelled just days before the opening, due to the Covid lockdown.

The Durban Passion Play, dubbed the “Oberammergau of Africa”, was first performed 70 years ago, spearheaded by the late Fr Noel Coughlan OMI.

The Durban play has the unique distinction of being the only other Passion Play to be affiliated with the world-famous Passion Play of Oberammergau, as the people of the Bavarian village — who first staged the play in 1634 — have given the people of Durban special permission to use their script.

The Durban play’s history goes back 70 years. In April and May 1952, a Marian Congress, presided over by Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI, was held to mark the centenary of the arrival of the first Oblate of Mary Immaculate in South Africa. Fr Coughlan obtained special permission from the mayor of Oberammergau to stage an abridged and adapted version of their Passion Play as a prelude to the congress.

The first performances of “The Passion Play of Oberammergau” at the Durban City Hall took place on April 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15. A final performance was staged at the Greyville Racecourse on May 1, the day after the Marian Congress opened at Emmanuel cathedral. Jesus was played by David Horner; Mary by Monica O’Regan.

Hurley’s initial idea

The decision to perform a Passion Play as part of these celebrations emanated from Archbishop Hurley. His idea was to put on a religious theatrical performance as a means of evangelising. He approached prominent drama teachers from Durban — Doreen Lyster, Veronica Hassett and Deniece Grobler — as well as Fr Coughlan, and tasked them with finding a suitable presentation which would appeal to people of all denominations.

A copy of some notes later made by Doreen Lyster is in the Durban Catholic Players’ Guild archives. In them, she recalled how as a pupil at Maris Stella Convent School in the 1930s she was “green with envy” when a classmate announced that she would be travelling to Europe with her family, and that her itinerary included the Passion Play in Oberammergau. Upon her schoolmate’s return, Doreen was highly impressed by the glossy album of photographs and the written history of the Oberammergau Play which her friend brought to school.

She vowed that someday she would attend the Passion Play in Oberammergau herself. In 1950 she was finally able to fulfil her dream. While in Oberammergau, she managed to obtain an English translation of the script.

Fr Coughlan’s drive

Fr Coughlan led the adaptation of the script and also wrote moving choral verses which were used to link each scene of the play. This determined and dedicated young priest can therefore justifiably be described as the “father of the Durban Passion Play”. Doreen acknowledged that it was his vision and drive which made her own dream of staging a Passion Play a reality.

The Oblate priest was subsequently appointed the first spiritual director of the Durban Passion Play, and he retained a close relationship with the play until his death at 93 in 2009.

The first Passion Play was such a success that later that year Fr Coughlan travelled to Oberammergau to obtain permission for the Catholics of Durban to produce the Passion Play on a regular basis. The people of Oberammergau agreed, but only on the condition that the Passion Play would be performed before non-segregated audiences.

It was decided that the Durban Passion Play would be performed every five years, an undertaking which the subsequently-formed Durban Catholic Players’ Guild has always taken very seriously.

In 1957 the second Durban Passion Play was staged at the Durban City Hall, and further productions were held in 1962 and 1967. The most recent performance was in 2015.