Director Barrie Kosky plunges us into a nightmarish, wildly exaggerated satire, with marching noses, rolling rickshaw tables, and caricatured protagonists in garish costumes that straddle folklore and historicism, all unfolding within a cold, bleak setting that feels claustrophobic despite its size. This surrealist story of the insecure and paranoid upstart Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov is transformed into a absurd, kaleidoscopic revue of the vanities, an unsettling collision of Wozzeck and Alice in Wonderland with its own ‘irrational’ logic.

The Nose

Schiller Theater

Long before Oscar Wilde’s interpretation, the figure of Salome already appeared in the Bible. There, the story was about how King Herod, his stepdaughter Salome, and John the Baptist (Jochanaan) each lose their heads—although in very different ways...

Ferdinand Keller

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 15 - Apr 6, 2026

The Nose · Komische Oper Berlin

Past events

Mar 15 - Apr 6, 2026

The Nose · Komische Oper Berlin

Nov 22, 2025 - Jan 3, 2026

Salome · Komische Oper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

1st child / 1st son / 1st newcomer in The Nose by Shostakovich

Komische Oper Berlin

Fourth Jew in Salome by Strauss

Komische Oper Berlin

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