Linzer Torte takes centre stage in new Linz play

The Linzer Torte takes the stage in Linz, where the play “Linzer Torte mit Schlag” is receiving its world premiere at the Landestheater Linz. ORF reports that writer and director David Bösch explores home, foreignness, love and Austrian identity through the famous cake.

Known for its round shape, sweet filling and distinctive shortcrust lattice, the Linzer Torte is the starting point for a story that reaches beyond food. In the play, Jackson receives a mysterious letter in New York from “a place called Upper Austria”, praising what it calls perhaps the best cake in the world: “This is what Europe tastes like.” A sample bearing a signature made from redcurrant jam leads him to Austria.

Christian Taubenheim plays Jackson, while Christian Higer portrays a border guard. Jackson soon discovers that his mission will not be easy, facing local customs, language difficulties, culinary discoveries and a lesson in bureaucracy.

The story also follows two young people and a developing love story. Marlena Reinwald and Kaspar Simonischek, both new members of the Landestheater ensemble, play the couple.

Reinwald, known in part from “Soko Linz” and “Soko Donau”, learned the Upper Austrian dialect for the production. Simonischek, 29, already knows Linz from his studies at the Anton Bruckner Private University.

With music, humour and irony, the play examines the people and traditions surrounding the Linzer Torte. It is Bösch’s third stage text after “Das Derby”, a play about football, and presents an evening of popular theatre centred on pastries, song and Austrian identity.