Das Heilige in der Neuen Welt: Sarah Ruhls Passion Play: A Cycle und Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending

This article examines Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play: A Cycle and one of Tennessee Williams’ lesser known dramas, Orpheus Descending, in two productions at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., USA. Both represent very different attempts at dramatizing modern themes through medieval motifs and narratives. Passion Play: A Cycle is very much a play about acting, simulating and pretending, of illusions, loss of reality and the abilities of political leaders to use religion for their purposes. As such, it assumes a very important function which medieval dramas also performed: that of being a medium for reflecting contemporary political questions. In Orpheus Descending, on the other hand, the character of Val is shaped according to the model of a medieval saint. The identity of a saint serves as a necessary counter-component to the character, who otherwise would have been nothing more than another Elvis-like rebel without a cause.