Show pa lift ditl I 1 ow 4 4 1 4 p 7 R ui 11 ii 1 A k 3 ill v y pinion play SJ of ane TU f miss mission 0 n at 1 t ia R ahli aha a 01 q t the la e 1 ingest island of the marque sas group has leei been xit it nested b by over b a dozen non re resident ident white men let et it has been presented eveir fabber ro toi nea aea IN lift 3 sears ears I 1 a and nd from mana man points of view Is well nell worth orth seeing it was 11 first ilven as part of a campaign prosecute dby by the catholic Cit holic missionaries to win in converts from the protestants vino had preceded them in the field bi several beart and at its initial presen tation all the roles were nere taken b french mis siou sio aries gathered from all parts ot of the society group and brought to the Marque sas in trading neis cl altered for the occasion the fol losing air minor parts were given gien to catnes as rewards for becoming con converts erts to catholicism and before man many seasons had bad gone bv even enen the leading parts came to be taken ba b the natives naties the missionaries contenting them themselves seles with such positions as stage manager musical dirce tor ter and the like the passion pla is presented today in the same place where the first performance was nas staged a sort of natural amphitheatre in the fatme milage of tile the mission build ings low rambling structures of coral blocks and galvanized iron flank two sides of a pentagonal enclosure the other sides are shut in hi close set rows rous of banyans of such sue size that their roots and branches mingle to form at al most solid wooden terraces upon which hun deeds of spectators may find seats without crom crowding ding the stage is a hard packed piece of 0 ground sloping gently down to a crystal clear stream which meanders past sparkling in the sunbeams like a rox row ot of footlights the position of which it approximately approximate occupies behind the stage is a creeper covered wall of rock with nith a face so sheer that the direction exit rear must feces bably 8 a fly be eliminated from all performances to the left is down ta TOO roo la Is the name of 0 the little stream and to the right Is up ta roo la a actors waiting in either wing are screened front from the sight of the audience ba b the ends of 0 tile the rows rois of bar bariaux banyans iaus the music Is furnished by a slightly sligh tl cheezy organ a clarinet and a lot of hollow tree ton to n toms and to the stirring strains of the mar seil laise lase played placed by this orchestra the curtain Is rung up upon the tableau of christ and tile the children of course there Is no curtain and no ringing up christ simply strolls in front from up ta roo la and the children troop in from down donn baroo ta roo la in and the meet in the middle ot of the stage elige there are no stage settings and little is done in the anay wa of ahe children are rim pi children chil dien arid and christ Is well neli tor for the last fifteen ears lie he hat been burau burau la Is the greatest pearl alier and shark nehei in all the Marque sas there is little in ill his disposition off the stage to fit him for its his role lie he owes onnes the honor that has come to him to his beard it Is the biffl one borne by a native in the mar tt ath his hair and heard beard neatly oiled arid and combed and dressed in a trilling trailing white robe ot of inov y muslin burau makes a tar far more acceptable christus than one sees in many of tile the south american presentations of the pla the only especially fairing note in his makeup Is a bilo balo which aich is apparent 13 cut from a apiece piece of shins biscuit tin during the week neel ot of the pla both un and off the stage burau Is quiet dignified and a paragon in eiery ever particular afterward he be Is just like all the rest of 0 his brothers and sisters the second scene is the redemption of the magdalena the latter wearing a right bright red holokan or T v ripper rapper comes strolling in from the upstream sida and discovers christ resting on oil a niche of the rock which forms the back will wall her repentance and forgiveness fol follow loiN after acter which burau presents her with a pure white bite holokan she rec receives elies a bleb blessing sing trips oft off down don stream changes hol behind tila trunk of a breadfruit tree and am the curtain fol to lov s her di ce cc in her trailing robe of white for the supper scene no endeavor is 19 made to reproduce a tableau patterned on the famous painting ot of leonardo dt di vinci A bountiful re past of bican truit plantains plant ains ns yams bams and cocoanuts cocoa nuts Is spread out upon a cover of banana leaves nd everybody sits down cross legged and eita cats for fully five minutes before a word ord la Is spoken apo kell supper over the remnants are gathered up ml it drown ro it into the conn convenient eilent 1 I larooka la a roo roola la then i 1 10 loi N I 1 he v ashing of the fiot feet of the disciples 47 wy 1 0 I 1 r as aa rays 21 1111 I 1 burau wades oner oer into the stream seats himself on a smooch bronn boulder and as each disciple comes out in turn he ches his feet a Nig vigorous orous scrubbing with a brueh of cocoanut coco anut husk and a piece of lellow soap the seane of christ healing the lepers as pre dented at is perhaps the most realistic tableau in one particular at least that la Is staged in any of the passion plays real lepers appear on the stige stage in the early das dans of the play the parts of the lepers nere taken by entirely and healthy people but the missionaries v eie never able to make tho the people understand why with so many genuine lepers read at hand any make believe in this particular need be indulged in finally several of the lepers themselves ies christian con gerts came to the fathers and asked what nhat was inas the use of curing a lot of well people in the play pla ichen ben there vere iero so many sick people about nho really needed curing the upshot of the matter aas as that halt half a dozen lepers acre iere at al coned upon the stage at the next performance rol rollo loning xing tile the neek of the plas it la is said that a nery lery marked improvement anas ft as evident for several months in ili the condition of eiers one of the unfortunates that appeared upon the stige stage since then the missionaries liane hae not had the heart to refuse tile the primers of any of those nho liale haie come to them at laster easter until nov non it Is necessary to divide the lepers into squads of a score or more each and allow a dlf dif ferent squad to appear each night the govern ment doctor at hlaca has declared that there has been a marked decrease de creise in the leper mor of the island since this practice has been inaugurated one of the most interesting characters in the play is the judas from the first it has been the aim of the fathers to impress the cathes as strong stron gl as possible nith the real goodness or badness of the arlous characters of the tha pla 1 ask sr and to this end in fit tl it e case of judas ohp th in men e n who ullo have placed the role have haie been repeatedly crepea gedly taken on a temporary reprieve from the convict settlement judas has always been literally i bad man and it is recorded that no less than halt half a dozen of hirn him haie ende endeavored mored to steal the thirty pieces of in this case lot dol lars with which he ins has been briba of late yeas years ohp fathers have haie removed the temptation by b binding the bargain with a bagful of broken crooker crockery f which chich provides th ill jingle at less risk tile the judas of tour four bears ears ago one discard the halt half caste son of an australian Austra liin trader and his Mir ATar wife ilfe who aho was nias serving a term for robbing a pearler turned out almost as bad ii as his original tor for he looted the mission on the second night of the play rowed oft off with inith the magdalen to a trading cutter anchored in the ba baa surprised and threw ovel overboard board the solitary watchman arid and sailed the little boat oft off single handed for the notus the part of pontius pilate has been placed for nearly twenty scars by b an old chief a former cannibal hadgi dauga his costume Is a military coat and a silk hat the tha idea of the fathers being to effect a combination thit that will nill make the deepest impression on OB the nathies nathel as symbolical simbo lical of constituted power the mission try and the french soldier are the two most august angust personages known knonk to the natives and the two most striking features of the costume of eich each united upon one person make an impression more profound than would a romin roman toga topped off with an eigle eagle cro crowned ined helmet or an other of the combinations that the reil real pilate Is sup posed to hive haie worn ruth ingalls who iho has played tile the part of miry mary the mother for the last three years is a halt white girl of unknown beauty she Is about twenty five bears ie irs or of age fifteen sears ears lounger than burau choso whoso mother she Is in the pla and has been under the care of the mis narles since tile the time when a child of ten she was cist cast up tip on the beach of one of the pau notus with ath the wreckage of a tahitian Ta hitlan trad ing schooner her interpretation of the character of the madonna Is a trine trifle nake perhaps but surprising 13 effect lie her work being the only thing in the plan worth of the name of acting |