“We want to take control again,” says Markus Bachmeier, head of the old cinema in Ebersberg. A statement that sounds positive at first – but in fact means that the doors of the two stages in the district town will remain closed for the time being. Bachmeier’s team has now decided with a heavy heart – and thus makes it clear how bad the culture in the entire district is once again.
Although events would currently be allowed, the legal restrictions make implementation almost impossible. “Omicron wall, 2 G Plus, distance, mask, few people, little atmosphere, little income: it just doesn’t make sense like that,” says Bachmeier. Neither the audience, nor the artists or organizers would enjoy such a situation. Even the fact that the occupancy of the halls has finally been increased from 25 to 50 percent doesn’t change anything, says the Ebersberg director. Culture – in Bavaria it seems to take place mainly in the tavern.
The constant rescheduling is incredibly frustrating
So the Ebersberg culture team decided not to offer any more events with an audience for the time being. “At most one or the other stream.” Because, as Bachmeier explains, the constant short-term rescheduling is incredibly exhausting and frustrating. Three quarters of the appointments on the most recent flyer had to be canceled shortly afterwards. “We finally want to act instead of just reacting.” In this respect, planning is now concentrating on the warmer period from April. Then there should be many concerts and cabaret evenings in the district town, and the local actors are already scratching their hooves: the Grafing youth orchestra finally wants to play again, Movimento want to perform its new show. And according to Bachmeier, there should also be a culture fire in the monastery building yard again in 2022.
Despite the closure, the team will certainly not get bored
In any case, the team of the old cinema will not be bored for a second, despite the closure. Short-time work is therefore still out of the question for the association. In addition to planning for the summer, the agenda also includes cleaning up. “There’s really a lot we just haven’t gotten around to in the past few months,” explains Bachmeier. After a major renovation in the backstage area, there were still unpacked boxes and all sorts of things that hadn’t found a permanent place.
In addition, the head of culture has a lot of ideas floating around in his head. With the actors Alexander Liegl, Michael Altinger and Constanze Lindner, all three of whom are part of the Ebersberg inventory, so to speak, their latest coup, a tabloid comedy entitled “The True Story of Bonnie & Clyde”, is to be filmed on the stage of the old cinema. “It’s very, very funny and turbulent, lots of quick changes through countless doors,” explains Bachmeier – “and therefore a challenge for every cameraman”. The recording should then be visible Old cinema TV, a new media library. A series of shows is also already planned gaston alias Florian Reinhold. The magician, moderator and quick-change artist had recently enchanted the Ebersberg audience with his project “Jacqueline sings”. The pilot show of the new format is scheduled to take place in March.
Also in March is the Austrian cabaret duo Blozinger as a guest – and if Bachmeier has his way, it should stay that way. Except there won’t be a public performance, just a somewhat experimental recording. “If you listen to the two of them at the sound check, it’s almost better than their actual program,” says the stage manager about Robert Blöchl and Roland Penzinger. “And that’s exactly the drive I’d like to have!” Corona, it seems, leaves cultural workers with no choice but to engage in new formats and stories. How good that they are so creative.