I WANNA CONTACT THE LIVING: The Ghostly from Canterville at the Munich Volkstheater
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When the ghost seeks closeness: I WANNA CONTACT THE LIVING in Munich
An ancient curse, a haunted castle, and a lost soul desperately waiting for reactions: With I WANNA CONTACT THE LIVING – The Ghostly from Canterville, the Munich Volkstheater brings a unique world premiere based on Oscar Wilde to stage 2. On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 8:00 PM, an onstage experience unfolds between horror, dark humor, and a societal diagnosis of the present.
A ghost that can no longer scare anyone
The ghost of Canterville rattles its chains, conjures familiar images from horror films and ghost stories, yet encounters a completely unimpressed modern family. The classic haunting loses its effect. From the ghost story arises a question that is both comical and disturbing: Can an enlightened society still feel fear?
Author and director Katharina Grosch takes Oscar Wilde's narrative as a starting point for a production about fear, desensitization, and the longing for human contact. Amid images from the news, panic attacks, and seemingly processed traumas, fear appears not as a mere shock effect but as an elemental social experience. Those who fear together draw closer to one another.
Absurd theater with a sense of the uncanny
The dramaturgy connects the literary source with an absurd-trashy setting and contemporary thoughts on humanity. Small moments of fright meet bizarre trains of thought, while the direction intentionally shifts the line between comedy and discomfort. A press voice from Abendzeitung highlights the surprising and rewarding moments of the production.
The stage design and costumes by Hanna Rode create the visual resonance space for a world in which the ghostly appears between castle romance, pop culture, and contemporary satire. Music by Cico Beck and the light by Balthasar Lukas Pank condense the theatrical atmosphere into an acoustic and visual interplay of tension, irritation, and dark humor.
Acting art between haunting and vulnerability
Maximiliane Haß, Liv Stapelfeldt, and Marlene Markt embody three ghosts, whose haunting is both grotesque, over-the-top, and touching. Ruth Bohsung is part of the eerie household as Ms. Umney, while Lena Brückner takes on the role of Virginia. The acting art thrives on precise timing, physical comedy, and the ability to reveal a lost soul behind the mask of horror.
The production runs for 1 hour and 50 minutes without an intermission. This creates a concentrated theater evening that derives its tension not from a linear ghost story but from the friction between the literary source, horror tradition, and a present that has become accustomed to almost everything.
A Munich theater evening with resonance
I WANNA CONTACT THE LIVING promises no ordinary ghost spectacle. The audience is in for an atmospheric, musically condensed, and intellectually surprising production about fear, loneliness, and the power of shared shock. Those who experience theater as a lively encounter, as a friction surface, and as a place of unusual perspectives will find here an evening with its own tone.
Conclusion: Katharina Grosch's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Ghost of Canterville combines horror, social analysis, and absurd stage art. Experience the ghostly live at the Munich Volkstheater and discover why a little shiver is sometimes the most human reaction of all.
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