Let the Wolf Die

Theatre stages that became too real. An audiovisual performance and documentary narrative about arson attacks, ideological and war violence, leaving rubble, soot and bones beneath the floorboards. Four stories of theatre buildings in Milan, Žilina, Šumperk and Mariupol.

Theatres face disasters beyond artistic failures - bombs fall on their roofs, flames consume their stages. This new work by the Terén team and guests explores these true stories. The production "Let the Wolf Die" reconstructs the destruction of four European theatre buildings and, above all, the processes of their restoration, intertwined with shifts in social order and state regimes. It is a documentary account of diverse fates: return to original condition, disappearance, complete reconstruction, and theft of an entire building by an occupying army.

The performance is divided into four chapters separated by intermissions, combining audiovisual performance, documentary narrative, hörspiel, concert and lecture performance. It tells grand and intimate histories that passed through theatre buildings, and portrays specific human decisions in moments of crisis. Within cycles of building, demolition, creation and destruction, it asks how to reckon with the rubble and wreckage of the past and how to repair a bombed and burned present in the future.

Warning: The performance uses intense lighting and smoke effects and loud reproduced sound. The narrative contains explicit descriptions of traumatic events from armed conflicts.

Duration: four hours with three intermissions