A recording features a woman who traveled to the Baltic Sea to help the whale with an Aboriginal chant to plug energetic holes.
The media reaction triggered a boom in whale and sealife-themed book sales, alongside sentimental and satirical songs.
At the premiere, rock band Tulpe performed their hit Sprengt den Wal! (“Blow up the whale!”
), with a chorus of “Let it rain whale salami and cutlets.”
An AI-generated song that went viral on social media mixes populist resentment against experts. The actors perform it as a rock number.
The lyrics include: “While he is still breathing, they are already talking of what happens afterwards / of tests and numbers / as if he was only an empty body without a heart.”
A risky attempt to transport the whale back to the open sea on a water-filled barge was privately funded by two millionaires and cleared by authorities, despite expert advice that the animal was unlikely to survive.
The play restages a press conference where biologists proposing to let the whale die in peace were criticized by hangers-on as wanting to “murder” the animal.
One woman called a death in the bay undignified.
The rescue effort seemed driven by populist resentment against elites, reflecting political fractures in Germany.
In the play, an actor in a wetsuit rails against officials and calls for ordinary people to wake up while a large German flag is raised.
On May 14, nearly two weeks after the release, the whale was found dead near the island of Anholt in the Kattegat.
The fallout over the estimated €2 million rescue mission continues.
