The “4th International Youth Theater Festival” invites you to Kremsmünster

All theater players are between 16 and 25 years young. This time, the diverse program is united by “quite a literary claim,” says theater maker Bernhard Paumann from the “Amateurtheater Oberösterreich” association, which organizes the festival in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Association for Non-Professional Theater and the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA). For example, the school theater group “(k)alte küche” from Vienna takes on Goethe’s Faust 1. The VIP Prague group traces Jerome David Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and the Pesimyski group from Bratislava follows in the footsteps of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

“In the human zoo” of conspiracies

The youth theater festival will be opened by the Swiss children’s and youth theater in Turgi on May 31, 8.30 p.m. with its own production “Trapped – Captured”, an encouragement to diversity. The group “Tatort Theater Gmunden” of the BRG Schloss Traunsee is a guest from Upper Austria, which, with its director Rudolf Neuböck, often makes people sit up and take notice with very critical plays: “Der Menschenzoo” tells of people who were locked away by “reptilians”, around the world to protect them from their lack of conscience, greed and readiness to use violence (June 1, 8 p.m.).

Also a guest: “What if…” (June 1, 9.30 a.m.) asks the Young Actors Company Korneuburg, who accompanies a student in a dilemma: playing the piano or studying architecture? The BORG Lienz explores “The New Freedom in Krähwinkel”, whose residents resist the dictatorial authorities (June 2, 4:30 p.m.). A group from the Czech Republic will fill in for Schnitzler’s “Reigen”, which has to be omitted. (cash)

Info: Festival office in Kremsmünster Abbey: 0664 / 73 83 16 92, tickets: ooe-theaterverband.com