Named one of the Ten Best Plays of 2008 by The New Yorker
"Sarah Ruhl's bold, inventive, and ironic triptych [is] a meditation
on devotion and its appropriation by the state. . . . Ruhl is an
original; a storyteller with a fine mind evolving her own theatrical
idiom."--John Lahr, The New Yorker
"It's a different kind of morality play . . . an often wondrous work . .
. with [Ruhl's] own special lyrical blend of poetry, humor and
grace."--Frank Rizzo, Variety
Passion Play is Sarah Ruhl's "biggest, most ambitious effort yet"
(The New York Times), a three-and-a-half hour intimate epic, plunging
the depths of 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.
Sarah Ruhl's plays include Dead Man's Cell Phone, Eurydice, and
The Clean House, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work
has been widely produced both throughout the country and
internationally, and she is the recipient of the MacArthur "Genius"
Fellowship.
