Tullnian Culture – Manuela Lynchalm makes dolls dance in the Danubium

Manuela Lynchalm almost became a journalist, having studied journalism and communication sciences. But she was always doing side theater. This was her passion and so she also completed her acting training.

She specialized in, among other things, puppet theater for adults, and it happened like this: “The puppets found me,” Lynshalem recalls. At the Schubert Theater in Vienna she met Nicholas Habjan, who was currently developing his first dystopian puppet play, “Schlag sie dead”. “During the break he handed me one of his dolls. “And I thought, ‘Cool!’ and he thought, ‘Cool!’, which was the beginning of a wonderful collaboration,” says Lynshalm.

The Puppet Theater offers a wide range of biographies, from Faust and Everyman, to biographies such as those of Hedy Lamarre or Friedrich Zaurel, to “Kottan Investigates” or “Bladerunner”. “It's a universal tool and the puppet is an intermediary tool for us actors. It's useful to be able to say anything, convey things very directly and still touch them,” explains Lynshalm.

She came to Tulane with “The World is a Würstelstand,” a cabaret-style piece she wrote with Stefan Luck. “The central character is sausage seller Resi-Resch, basically the brainchild of Dirk Sterman from his book ‘Six Austrians in the Top Five.’ “She interested me, and then I wrote her life story,” says Lenshalm. The Resi-Resch doll comes from Habjan, and has She built all the other characters herself.

And the stories about the sausage stand? “There's very little that gets invented. We listened a lot, tested some things ourselves, and then put it all together,” says the actor and puppeteer. Dark, humorous, spicy – sweet and spicy, the Viennese puppet theater will be experienced live on Friday, March 8 , at 7:30 pm at Danubium.