Tirol festival revives parlour theatre in museum rooms

A two-day festival in Innsbruck will bring five small-scale plays to the historic rooms of the Tirol Folk Art Museum, with audiences limited by the available space, ORF reports.

The Theater Verband Tirol, a theatre association, and the museum are staging the performances on the evening of November 14 and again on the morning of November 15. Each play will be seen by 125 people, divided into groups of 25 to fit into the rooms.

The festival follows a writing competition launched by the association two years ago to renew interest in traditional parlour theatre, connect regional theatre groups and create new performance opportunities. Organisers received 42 plays by authors based in Tirol. Nine were selected for production, including the winning play, “Augen zu und Sprung” by Betti J. Strolz; five of the selected works will be performed at the festival.

Parlour theatre has a long history in Tirol, where small performance spaces and inn rooms once helped foster local theatre culture. The intimate setting calls for direct, intense performances, organisers say, and can allow actors to involve the audience more closely. All five festival plays were written for small rooms and casts.