Hospital of Ghosts

Venue: DT Stage - In the Copenhagen Reich Hospital, known as “The Reich”, doctors use cutting-edge technology to fight illness and death in the service of science. But certainly for uncertain reasons, because the hospital was built on marshland: “Perhaps they became too presumptuous in their stubborn denial of the spiritual world? Because fatigue cracks are visible in the building, which is so modern and seemingly so solid. The doors to the realm of death are beginning to open again.” That's the opening credits of the series that young Lars von Trier created for Danish television after completing his studies.

It is about an ailing hospital building, esoteric treatment methods, the concealment of medical malpractice, a hospital administration calibrated on austerity, a surprise visit from the Minister of Health and other unpleasant things. In addition, ghosts haunt the building and monsters are born. Evil fights with good: Quite a bit happened in the eight episodes that were filmed in the 90s.

With black humor, events in the “Reich” raise fundamental questions which, in all their absurd quirkiness, aim at the heart of the healthcare system: What is the state of hospitals? What is the score of efficiency and ethical-moral issues with regard to medical practice? But also: How much is the past part of the present? How much is evil a condition for good? And above all: How permeable is the line between life and death?

Lars von Trier, a great European filmmaker and enfant terrible of the film industry, is a cult director whose films are as provocative in terms of content as they are aesthetically innovative. Many of his works have been adapted for theatre, and the “Hospital of Spirits” is now finding its way onto the stage — near the Charité, which was also built on uncertain ground: as a spectacle full of people, which is also an inclusive theatre project with players from RambaZamba and from Graz.