On the Cross

An actress and a village woodcarver who plays Christ in the Oberammergau Passion Play meet between performances, and neither can quite step back out of the part. Von Hillern's mother was an actress and playwright, and she herself had been on the stage, which is why the theatrical half of the book is exact. Fifty-five plates of village streets, trees and coastal light by painters including Edvard Munch and Max Liebermann carry the Passion Play's world of ordinary people and open air.