A new version of the Passion Play staged every ten years by the villagers of the West German village of Oberammergau will be presented in Paris at the huge Palace of Sports Stadium starting January 19, it was announced here today. The original version presented in Oberammergau was assailed last year by the American Jewish Congress as anti-Semitic. That version is scheduled for presentation again in 1970. The play deals with the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.
The adaptation to be shown in Paris, then in Britain, the United States and Australia, was prepared by Jacob Blume, a German actor and director. When plans were announced last November for the proposed presentation of the Blume version in London and other British cities, a controversy developed, capped by a formal appeal by the Board of Deputies of British Jews to have nothing to do with the planned presentation.
Blume said today in Paris that one of his parents was Protestant and one Jewish and that he changed the Oberammergau version “only by relating the Holy Scriptures.” Critics said that this statement did net put the West German actor on record as saying he had removed elements considered anti-Semitic.
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