Edouard Funck, round glasses, fine mustaches and messy hair, is one of those who pull the strings "two meters above the stage".

Passionate about the backstage of shows since his childhood in Paris, he is inexhaustible on the technique invented 110 years ago by the founder of this beautiful theatre, the Austrian sculptor Anton Aicher, and now recognized by Unesco.

"It's like playing a musical instrument: we don't think about the strings during the performance" and we know his score, explains the 34-year-old artist.

Here the movements of the figurines are ultra-precise, the emotions are palpable.

The secret weapon?

A small cross to manipulate the puppets, which fits in one hand and allows "characters to kiss or hug", which is "not always possible with a different technique".

Two puppeteers at work during a performance at the Salzburg Puppet Theater, Austria, February 14, 2023 © JOE KLAMAR / AFP

Learning how to handle it is not taught in any school: you have to train here and several years are required to achieve perfect mastery.

Knowing that some complex characters can have dozens of strings, requiring up to five specialists.

Renewed interest

The puppeteers are also the ones who build the puppets: they devote hours daily to these wooden beings, hundreds of which populate the workshops, before engaging in the performance in the Baroque hall.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Little Prince, the Magic Flute: each puppet is sculpted, painted and dressed by the artists themselves to animate a vast repertoire drawing from tales as well as musical comedies.

A puppet operated by a puppeteer during a rehearsal at the Puppet Theater in Salzburg, Austria, on February 14, 2023 © JOE KLAMAR / AFP

"It's an unusual job," says Edouard Funck, costume designer and proud member of the team.

The Theatre, which supports 19 people, has seen its attendance increase in recent years.

People "are getting a bit tired of the virtual world" and are once again showing interest in "what can be touched, heard and seen", he notes.

Ilse Laubbichler, a 79-year-old spectator who has been faithful to the theater since a very young age, is enthusiastic about "this truly superb art" which she is now introducing to her grandchildren.

"I like the figurines, the grace of the movements and that we can represent everything, whether it's a ballerina, a dragon or the traditional Kasperl", a kind of Germanic Guignol, she explains.

Puppets from the Marionette Theater in Salzburg, Austria, February 14, 2023 © JOE KLAMAR / AFP

Since 1961, the tradition of puppetry, practiced in many countries for thousands of years, even has its world festival in Charleville-Mézières in the French Ardennes.

But Austria is hardly worried about competition.

“Competiting with a century-old institution seems difficult to me,” smiles Mr. Funck.

Especially since the theater of Salzburg, the city of Mozart obliges, is the only one in the world dedicated to the demanding representation of real operas.

© 2023 AFP