THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!
IT’S only an hour until show time in Salzburg and, right now, tonight’s star is wedged sideways between the green folds of the scenery, looking a little lifeless. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is to be performed here, in the city where the musical is set, and where the real Trapp Family Singers once lived. Maria, the singing nun-turned-fairy stepmother made famous by Julie Andrews, is sandwiched between the scenery because, when the time comes, the meadows will spring into motion at exactly the same moment she does. Here at the Marionette Theatre, the hills really a re alive.
The Maria waiting patiently amid folded fields is just one of five puppet Marias who play their part in this show, each with a different miniaturised costume that’s been painstakingly hand-stitched. Another Maria, wearing a dark-blue dress with a white apron, is shyly dancing on her strings towards the edge of the stage, where the theatre’s creative director, Barbara Heuberger, is perched. “Oh
