About the work
“Hospital der Geister” is based on the Danish television series “Riget” (“The Kingdom”), written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel and produced by Zentropa. The first season aired on DR from 24 November 1994, and Arte showed it in Germany from March 1995 under its German title; further seasons followed in 1997 and 2022 (“The Kingdom Exodus”). Stage rights in German-speaking countries are held by Rowohlt Theater Verlag. Jan-Christoph Gockel directed the German-language premiere at Schauspielhaus Graz on 20 January 2023 as “Das Reich: Hospital der Geister”, then developed it with Karla Mäder into a version about an hour longer that opened at Deutsches Theater Berlin on 29 March 2025.
Plot
The setting is the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen’s national hospital, which stands on former marshland. Strange phenomena keep piling up there: Sigrid Drusse, a patient drawn to spiritualism, follows the trail of a dead girl whose ghost haunts the building and points to a crime committed in 1919. Meanwhile the Swedish chief surgeon Stig Helmer tries to hide a blunder of his own, a pathologist has a tumorous liver implanted in himself to study the rare tissue, and a secret lodge of doctors meets for its rituals. Two dishwashers with Down syndrome follow the events as a commenting chorus.
Cultural significance
The series mixes hospital soap, horror and black comedy; von Trier cited David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” as an inspiration. It won several Bodil Awards in 1995 and the Adolf Grimme Award in 1996, and Stephen King developed it into the American series “Kingdom Hospital” in 2004. The Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen staged the first season as early as 2018, directed by Nicolei Faber; in Graz, Gockel condensed almost ten hours of television into a four-hour evening in the theatre.