Capital of Culture 2024

Bad Ischl and Schlingensief’s opera village in Africa

Thiemo Strutzenberger and Sidiki Yougbaré met in Bad Ischl to gather ideas for a stage work together.

(Bild: Edwin Husic)

The Upper Austrian actor Thiemo Strutzenberger has previously been engaged in Germany and Switzerland. He is now part of the Burgtheater ensemble. Before his Vienna debut, he will be involved in the Capital of Culture, in a theater project with Christoph Schlingensief's opera village in Burkina Faso.

"Creative encounters instead of colonialism" is the motto of the Capital of Culture project "Deconfining Arts", essentially a theater festival in Bad Ischl (9 to 13 October) that connects nations and continents.

Thiemo Strutzenberger (42), who comes from Kirchdorf/Krems, was teamed up with Sidiki Yougbaré, a theater maker from Christoph Schlingensief's opera village in Burkina Faso, Africa. The two have poured their encounter into texts. These will be premiered on Wednesday, October 9 as the play "Inbox/Salz & Säulen" at the Lehár Theater. Although Strutzenberger will not be on stage, he will be sitting in the audience, as he reports in the "Krone" talk show.

"Krone": You worked together with Sidiki Yougbaré. How did you go about it and what interested you in particular?
Thiemo Strutzenberger : How we wanted to work together was entirely up to us. We were happy about it, but we also discussed how we should actually go about it without a translator. At the same time, it really became a great opportunity to develop something. We met in Bad Ischl to get to know each other and to communicate. Our texts now have the potential of encounters.

Thiemo Strutzenberger, new member of the Burgtheater ensemble

(Bild: Tommy Hetzel/BURG)

Sidiki Yougbaré (Burkina Faso) is an actor, author, director and film actor

(Bild: Ibrahim Passere)

Has a friendship also developed? 
The language barrier and the distance don't really allow us to live it. Although we certainly see each other as friends. We could have deepened it if we had staged the texts together, as was our first idea. But rehearsals at the Burgtheater have already started and unfortunately I wasn't able to do that. The director Polina Solotowizki is certainly working it out in a great way with Sidiki Yougbaré.

What can the audience expect on October 9 at the Lehár Theater in Bad Ischl?
Well, "Inbox" is the title of Sidiki's text, but "Salt & Pillars" is mine. The title "Inbox/Salt & Columns" results from the combination of the two. But what will we see? Frankly, I have no idea. I know that the texts will be connected, nested inside each other, that it is probably a complex process and that different ideas will be used. It's certainly an experiment. I'll let myself be surprised.

You're from Kirchdorf, you spent a long time in Germany and Switzerland. You play and write drama and are now part of the ensemble at Vienna's Burgtheater. Are you more of an author or more of an actor? How do you see yourself artistically?
I have definitely become more of an actor, I think. My need to express myself in other ways has perhaps diminished somewhat due to the ever-increasing size and complexity of my work. So I've put my author self on the back burner until it has time again and feels the need to develop something else.

What are you particularly looking forward to right now?
Getting to know my new colleagues at the castle and exploring new aspects of the profession with them. Experiencing this playful togetherness - that can be something very special. And I'm also looking forward to arriving back in Vienna.