Return to Ralswiek: Störtebeker Festspiele 2023

Between the years 2011 and 2019 I attended at least one performance of the Störtebeker Festspiele each year. In some years I visited the island of Rügen twice – once for the press performance and once on holiday – and saw three performances of the same play.

Of course, the Covid pandemic changed all of that, so what would have been my tenth year everything got cancelled. The set was built, tickets sold, no performances took place. The year after, 2021, the decision was taken early on to cancel the performances. In the end, the theatre was able to re-open in 2022 with precautions in place to isolate the actors from the audience and avoid possible infections.

Between 2020 and 2022, the actor playing Klaus Störtebeker – Alexander Koll – hat given up the role, resulting in new posters being produced and the role being re-cast to Moritz Stephan. 2022 also saw the interesting addition of a small canal to the stage, with part of the action taking place in Holland. But, after over two years of travel restrictions, we had set other priorities for the summer holidays and did not make in to Rügen.

So this year saw our Return to Rügen and to Ralswiek! Having spent the day in the village which included a walk to the stables, we attended the birds of prey show followed by the 2023 play “Gotland under fire” where – with permission – I was able to take some photos.

Störtebeker Festspiele 2023 - The Stage
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Behind the scenes at the Störtebeker Festspiele

Unfortunately I wasn’t at the open-air theatre on Rügen last week to take photos of the new production, that has been delayed since 2020, but for a dose of Ralswiek the theatre company have released a “behind the scenes” video that they shot in 2019:

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I should have been on Rügen today

Normally this is the week in June when I travel to see the Störtebeker Festspiele on Rügen and write about other places on the island to visit.

Not this year. The corona pandemic means that the theater is closed. So there will be no press preview to visit, no day on the green at the Bodden in Ralswiek, and no Erdbeerbecher in “Zum Störti”.

But until a few years ago the theatre produced DVDs of the performance, and these often pop up on ebay. I recently found the 2010 edition there, and since that is the year before my first visit to the island, it is one that I have never seen. So I will at least have a new play to see. It won’t be the same, though.

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