Anyone who worries that eight hours of theatre will leave them with a stiff neck or fused to their seat has nothing to fear at the Volksbühne. Peer Gynt is back, and with it the boundlessly layered spectacle by Vegard Vinge, Ida Müller and Trond Reinholdtsen — a production that refuses haste. At the centre is Peer, farmer’s son, liar, author of his own biography. He constantly shifts registers: hero, businessman, dreamer, survivor of his own stories. Everything about him remains in motion. Alongside Vegard Vinge and Ida Müller, performers such as Martin Wuttke, Kathrin Angerer, and around eighty others form part of a system that dissolves boundaries between role and person. Mask work, booming sound, video and projections pull in material from vastly different directions — from Norwegian landscapes to fragments of pop culture and the present day. At its core remains Peer, endlessly reinventing himself, inflating his own image, only to lose himself again and again. His youthful grandiosity spills into the front row. He seems too close to himself (and to us as well). This is precisely where the evening draws its tension: from the constant shifting of what you thought you had just grasped and the time it takes to do so.
Text: Emma Zylla / Photos: Julian Röder
Volksbühne, Linienstr.227, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map
Peer Gynt 15.05., 17.05., 19.05., 21.05., 23.05.2026. Get your tickets here.
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