Austria's mini theatre makes magic - 7th April 2023

This is the Marionette Theatre in Salzburg, Austria. It's famous for its puppets. The people who work with the puppets are 'puppeteers'. They have to prepare for years. They're experts. And the theatre now has a UNESCO prize. The prize is for culture and art.

Edouard Funck, from Paris, loved puppets as a boy. In 2011, he started working at the Salzburg theatre. He loves his job.

Edouard Funck: "I arrive in the morning, I work in the costume workshop from 9 am to 2 pm, I leave in the afternoon and I come back in the evening to play, for the show. That's really a typical day. Each puppeteer creates and is an integral part of the fabrication."

The puppets move with 11 strings. These strings can move different parts of the body.

Anton Aicher started this theatre 100 years ago. He built the special 'crossbar' for all the strings.

Edouard Funck: "All these little cross-braces allow us to get them to interact closely, so they can kiss each other, hug each other, hit each other, whatever we want, and it's this diversity of movements contained in this little cross that is protected."

Some puppets are special. They need five people to move them. Sometimes the changes in the puppets' body can look real.

Children and adults come to see the shows. Ilse Laubbichler, remembers watching as a girl. She now brings her grandchildren. For her, it's like magic.

Ilse Laubbichler: "I love the characters, their movements, it's absolute art. You can portray everything from a ballet dancer, to a dog, to a dragon, anything you want, not to mention Kasperl. It's been with me since I was a child, it was my first theatre experience."