THE FIASCO OP A PASSION PI.AY.
The production here of the Freiburg Passion Play is a curious combination of both players and spirit of Freiburg with all the devices of Broadway melodrama. To what a level the whole thing has been reduced is indicated by the erection over the front of the theatre of a huge electric sign bearing the legend, "Morris Gest's Passion Play." The play has been the subject of a vigorous controversy. It was attacked in lermons on Sunday by Rabbi Stephen 'Wise and Dr. John Haynes Holmes. The Rabbi declared "A thousand years of good will cannot undo the damage to the Jewish people done by the play and its moving picture predecessor, King of Kings. Mr. Holmes also characterized the play as a "Prostitution of the immortal story of our Lord's martyrdom and death," which in presenting Christ as "a stage puppet" sent people away from the theatre, "thinking less of Christianity than they had ever thought before." It is clear that a serious Passion Play may be given with great earnestness in a mediaeval European village, but has no place in the theatres
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