MotzArt Festival

Cabaret against political and digital madness

Alfred Dorfer's performances on Friday and Saturday are already sold out.(Bild: Christian Endt)

The MotzArt cabaret festival in Salzburg starts on Friday and runs until January 25. The motto: "Go out and defy all political and digital overload!"

According to ARGE boss Sebastian Linz, the eleven invited artists are doing just that: they are confronting the world and the audience in an exaggerated way. As every year, only Salzburg premieres will be shown at the festival, so the festival remains true to itself. "The aim is to find a good mix of old acquaintances and new discoveries," Sebastian Linz told the Krone.

In order to maintain this mix, he works openly with a quota when booking to ensure diversity in the program. At the MotzArt Festival, the line-up is even equal. "Cabaret has become much more diverse in Austria in recent years. The queer comedy format 'PCCC*', which is performing one evening at the festival on January 21, has played a big part in this trend. For example, they made Malarina big, which is now successful beyond the country's borders," explains Linz and continues: "Classic cabaret also has its place. Classic combos such as 'Attwenger' (on January 25) are also part of the festival's DNA, so to speak, with drawing, caricature and music. That's very important for the festival."

In addition to the trend towards diversity, Sebastian Linz is currently seeing a boom in political cabaret. Alfred Dorfer, who is giving a Salzburg double premiere with his program "Gleich" (on 17 and 18 January), is a strong representative of this movement at the festival, who in his current material prefers to reflect on the society that goes to the polls instead of the elected. Thomas Maurer, on the other hand, wonders how the digital challenges of the present and future can be met (on January 23) and while Antonia Stabinger (on January 20) and Christine Eixenberger (January 22) focus on the madness of everyday life in their solo programs, Barbara Blaha puts her finger in the wound called equality and tells "Fables that women tell" (on January 24).  Larissa Schütz