Alliance of International Production Houses

Nature Theater of Oklahoma is back! In Burt Turrido: An Opera a man lost and drowning at sea is rescued by a mysterious woman, who escorts him to the last remaining piece of land left on earth.  Despoiled of vegetation and full of the ghosts of its former inhabitants, the island is ruled by a despotic king and queen, who name their newly discovered castaway Burt Turrido, and make him their slave, and – when he proves too inept at that – their prisoner… With kitschy sets, great emotions, disappointed love and impending death, Nature Theater of Oklahoma subvert the classical opera genre with a spectacular, wild-west performance that purposefully skirts the cliché cliff by a hair’s breadth. The theatre group founded in 1996 in New York and with its Berlin base at HAU, unabashedly dismantles everything it encounters in the way of conventional structures and forms, only to reassemble it with great passion, humour and the courage to take risks.

Text & Direction: Kelly Copper, Pavol Liska
With: Gabel Eiben, Anne Gridley, Robert M. Johanson, Bence Mezei, Kadence Neill
Music: Robert M. Johanson / Set & lighting design: Luka Curk / Costume design: Anna Sünkel / Dramaturgy: Marcus Droß, Katja Herlemann / Set Design Assistant and Props: Hanna Marlene Schnell / Set Design Assistant: Nastja Miheljak / German Translation: Ulrich Blumenbach / Production Manager Künstlerhaus Mousonturm: Anne Kleiner / Management and Distribution: Something Great (Berlin)