Last Days

The 2005 film *Last Days*, directed by Gus van Sant, tells the story of the final days in the life of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain—though it deliberately blends more fiction than fact. Van Sant does not name his main character Kurt, but rather Blake. After Blake stumbles toward his death, oscillating between a dazed state and an inability to speak, it remains unclear whether it was suicide or not. In 2022, British composer Oliver Leith adapted this film for the opera stage, thrilling audiences at London’s Royal Opera House. Through the dark, colorful soundscapes of his music in *Last Days*, he conveys what it means to lose contact with the outside world. Lily Kuhlmann and Kaja Busch, who have been invited to present their production of *The Visit* at *Radikal jung*—The Festival of Young Directors in 2026—are staging the German premiere of *Last Days* for Theater Freiburg. They are exploring the dangerous loneliness of young men like Blake. In the backstage area of the Großes Haus, an opera evening unfolds in close proximity to the audience—gripping, somber, and melancholic.