Moby Dick

Beginning September 7, 2024, the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus is presenting Robert Wilson’s stage production of a major work of classic literature: Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville (1819-1891). In this novel, the reader follows the adventures of the whaling ship Pequod and its crew in the pursuit of the giant sperm whale for which the book is named. 

Following The Sandman (2017), Jungle Book (2019), and Dorian (2022), Moby Dick is Robert Wilson’s fourth production at the Schauspielhaus. It also marks a renewal of his collaboration with the British author/composer/translator Anna Calvi, with whom he created the globally successful play The Sandman. 

With more than a dozen artists on stage, the performance centers its intrigue around the character Captain Ahab. Driven by hate and his desire for vengeance, he consecrates his life to the pursuit of the giant sperm whale—Moby-Dick—which bit off his leg during a prior voyage. 

Robert Wilson calls on two actors with whom he has frequently worked in the past, Rosa Enskat and Christopher Nell, to bring the great American novel to the stage.