The Festival of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre
Oktober 24–27, 2024
4 venues – 6 ensembles – 5 countries
What makes the Salzburg Marionette Theatre different from other theatres? – On the stage, the marionettes are the protagonists, and the people are behind – or rather, above it all. Because, while down on the stage these finely-crafted marionettes perform plays, fairy-tales, musicals and operas, it's the skilled puppeteers two metres above them who guide all their movements with a special technique, each on 12 strings. The puppeteers, who have mastered this unique method, bring the marionettes to miraculous life.
This special performance technique, has been declared a cultural asset worthy of preservation, as the "most highly developed form of puppet and figure theatre", earning the Salzburg Marionette Theatre a place in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The focus of the PUPPETS! festival is a major anniversary production of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. On October 24, the world's most famous love story celebrates its premiere in a production by Thomas Reichert.