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.
October 24–27, 2024
Since 1913, the Salzburg Marionette Theatre with its unique performance technique has developed into an international benchmark in the art of puppetry. Now the theatre is taking its 111th anniversary as an opportunity to bring puppet theatre in all its facets to its home town: Every two years, the PUPPETS! Festival in Salzburg will present the most diverse forms of puppetry, performed by outstanding ensembles from all over the world.
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.