It has been organized for a year: the painting club made the stage design, tailor Anton Fenzel repaired the 100 historical costumes, even a new stage was built – all of St. Agatha helps together when, from June 3rd, the peasant war play on the life and death of Stefan Fadinger (ca. 1585–1626) remembered. The peasant leader was born in St. Agatha, led his comrades-in-arms to war against the hated Bavarian governor Count Herberstorff in May 1625 and died shortly afterwards in Ebelsberg when his peasant soldiers occupied Linz.
“Remember the Story”
This year the piece will be shown for the first time on the new forest stage near the building yard. It was built last year by volunteers for 170,000 euros in 4000 hours of work and has 450 seats.
The organizers in the 2,100-inhabitant community go to great lengths for the play: At the beginning, the farmers move in with historical costumes and weapons, Stefan Fadinger and his opponent Count Herberstorff ride on horseback, before the performance there is one from 5 p.m historical market.
The play was first performed in 1976 to mark the 350th anniversary and has since been performed six times at irregular intervals. “This time too we had to postpone the performance by two years because of Corona,” says Rudolf Fattinger, chairman of the Stefan Fadinger Farmers’ Group. The play was written by Carl Martin Eckmayr, Fridolin Dallinger composed the theatrical music.
25 actors, including Mayor Manfred Mühlböck as pastor, have been rehearsing for months. “The lead role in particular demands a lot from the actor Herbert Augdopler,” says director Eva Mühlböck. Like many of the amateur actors, he was also present at the last performance in 2014. The play takes up the life and death of the peasant leader in four acts, including the peasants’ famous oath: “Put your hand on the Lord’s cross to swear: God may have mercy on us! It must be! It must be!”
Chairman Fattinger is happy when things finally get going: “We want to commemorate an important piece of history.”
- The Peasant War Game can be seen on June 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11 from 8 p.m. at the Waldbühne, Waldweg 20, in St. Agatha.
- All information at stefan-fadinger.at
Source: Nachrichten
