The director Robert Wilson, celebrated throughout the world for his original aesthetics, and the British singer/songwriter Anna Calvi revive E.T.A. Hoffmann’s dark and gruesome fairy tale “The Sandman”. This carefully composed psychological tale of German Romanticism, which was published in 1816, has an early childhood trauma as its point of departure: little Nathanael’s father, a secret alchemist, dies in an explosion. The boy believes that the Sandman, who his mother often speaks of, must have been involved in the tragic event. He sprinkles sand in the eyes of children who don’t want to fall asleep – until their eyes fall out of their heads, bloody. It is a gruesome bedtime story that never lets go of Nathanael again. Enchanted eyeglasses, living puppets and magical fire – Robert Wilson’s subtle light compositions, precise movement sequences and daring stage sets dissolve the border between reality and delusion. Anna Calvi’s dramatic rock music creates the musical counterpoint.