Moby Dick

The Festival is presenting Robert Wilson’s (1941–2025) 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 whale for which the book is named. 

With more than a dozen artists on stage, the performance centres on the character Captain Ahab. He devotes his life to the pursuit of the giant whale—Moby-Dick—which bit off his leg during a prior voyage. 

Robert Wilson called on two actors with whom he frequently collaborated, Rosa Enskat and Christopher Nell, to bring this novel to the stage. As in Wilson’s seminal production of The Sandman, the British pop artist Anna Calvi composed the music for the piece.

This work is one of the last pieces by Robert Wilson and was produced by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in September 2024. Its creation was supported by Dance Reflections.