Steyrer Kripperl

The Steyrer Kripperl is a traditional rod-puppet theatre housed in the Innerberger Stadel on Grünmarkt in Steyr, Upper Austria. The building stands in the old town, close to the river Steyr and the main square. It is one of the last working rod-puppet theatres in the German-speaking world. The theatre grew from two travelling nativity plays in the mid-19th century. In 1914 the Heimatschutz Verein took it over, restored the figures and added new ones. Since 1923 it has been in the Innerberger Stadel. In 2018 it was entered in Austria’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Each Advent season it stages 23 Christmas and local-history scenes, using around 450 original figures, some over 200 years old. The ground-floor auditorium seats about 110 people and has standing room. The stage is 5 m wide and 2 m high, divided into lower, main and back stages. The lower stage shows a mine tunnel, a well and shepherds beside the central manger scene. To the sides are two tiers of moving craft workshops with mechanical tools and figures. On the main stage rod puppets act in front of Steyr’s old-town houses and on a bridge arch. Behind the arch a changeable painted backdrop forms the back stage. Live actors speak and sing the largely orally transmitted texts while they move the puppets by hand.