Passion Play

Sarah Ruhl’s storytelling takes a leap forward in this superb offering, as her tripartite pageant—we see the Passion performed by Elizabethans, pre–World War II Germans and modern-day South Dakotans—trumps her tendency for hyperlyricism. Yes, it’s almost four hours of theatrical in-jokes; but in this gentle production, Ruhl’s voice seems to retreat beyond the sphere of the play, performing that special vanishment that good writers know best how to do. Mark Wing-Davey’s masterful direction limits spectacle to some puppetry and the showstopping T. Ryder Smith, thus drawing our attention to the effortless interdependence of the whole.—Helen Shaw