Timmy gets his own play.Image: keystone
Millions of people followed the fate of a humpback whale in the Baltic Sea in spring. Now the event has found its way to the theater.
July 13, 2026, 12:33 a.mJuly 13, 2026, 12:33 a.m
The play “Timmy – Hope Dies Last” premiered at the Ernst-Deutsch-Theater in Hamburg on Saturday evening. The actor Enrique Fiss and director Alexander Klessinger processed the story of the humpback whale, which hit the media in the spring as “Timmy” or “Hope,” as the German Press Agency reports. The piece tells the story of the animal as a modern passion story.
The authors describe their work as an evening about a whale and everything we read into it. It is a “wild mix of performance, concert, trade fair and public self-questioning”. According to their own statements, they questioned “people’s longing for meaning in an overstimulated present.”
Veterinarian Kirsten Tönnies also on site
In the piece, Fiss also deals with the mood on social media surrounding the whale. He was moved by how much anger had boiled up when some wanted to let the animal die and others wanted to save it at all costs. “In the end, everyone hates each other, but the goal was to do something positive,” says Fiss.
The TV and theater actor is known, among other things, from the series “Grossstadtrevier”. After the performance, veterinarian Kirsten Tönnies, who was on site during a rescue attempt, and animal protection activists Anna Schubert and Hendrik Hassel discussed the event. The evening was closed by the Berlin band Tulpe, who had a hit with the song “Blown up the Wal”.