Overview
- Opening night stretched past midnight and featured graphic stage images, including a giant phallic prop, simulated masturbation and blood used as paint.
- The staging reframes Ibsen through a dark comic-world aesthetic loaded with 1970s–80s pop culture references and nods to police violence, war, abuse and the pandemic.
- Drinks and food were allowed in the auditorium to help spectators endure the length, with some audience attrition before a concluding round of applause.
- Performers framed the work as part of a much longer project, invoking a 48-hour scope and pausing after more than six hours at “Act 1,” with reports citing work rules for the nightly cutoff.
- Vinge and Müller previously declined interim leadership after René Pollesch’s death, and further performances are scheduled for Sept. 27 and 29 and Oct. 1, 3 and 5, with Lilienthal due to take over next year.