Naked lesbian nuns, sex and mutilation – hardcore opera that made German theatre-goers ill

Audience members suffer nausea with 18 needing medical treatment after seeing performance that offended Catholics with its shocking imagery

More than a dozen theatre-goers in Germany needed medical treatment after viewing a radical feminist opera which features naked nuns on rollerskates, a lascivious depiction of Jesus Christ and the grilling of human flesh.
The “Sancta” opera, which has an age restriction of over-18s and numerous content warnings about sex and mutilation, proved to be too intense for some audience members at the Stuttgart opera house.
According to the Stuttgarter Zeitung, a local newspaper, a total of 18 audience members came down with nausea, requiring first aid and even a doctor in some cases, while viewing the show.
With its shocking imagery, which many Catholics would deem offensive in the extreme, it is the sort of performance that would have made Antonin Artaud – the pioneer of the surrealist Theatre of Cruelty movement – proud.
The opera has an all-female cast of nuns who strip naked during the show, while one of them is spanked by another actor dressed as Jesus. 
Another actor with dwarfism is dressed up as the Pope and spun through the air on a mechanical arm.
Its organisers say the show features real blood and stunts, such as performers hanging out of bells with only their backsides or heads exposed, or putting phallic crucifixes down their throats.
At one point, according to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, a section of real skin is apparently carved off one of the actors and then cooked.
“On Saturday, we had eight people and on Sunday 10 people who had to be looked after by our visitors’ office,” Sebastian Ebling, a spokesman for the opera house, told the Stuttgarter Zeitung. 
He said three of those needing medical attention were so ill that a doctor had to be called.
He added: “We recommend that all viewers read these instructions carefully again so that they know what to expect,” noting that the opera contains real scenes of injury and blood.
Mr Ebling sought to play down the number of people taken ill, pointing out that one of the cases occurred during the opera’s introduction. 
“That can also be the case during a longer Wagner opera,” he said. “When in doubt, it helps to look away during the performance.”
The opera is loosely based on Sancta Susanna, which was composed by Paul Hindemith and first scandalously performed in 1921. 
Much like that show a century ago, this one is intended as a critique of organised religion, notably Catholicism, and of sexuality, according to the organisers.
“The focus of the evening is spirituality, sexuality – but also criticism of religion and a critical look at religious and social violence. Sexual acts take place on stage,” they said in a statement.
The opera left a number of Catholic leaders, including Franz Lackner, the Archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, unimpressed.
He has said the performance is far outside the acceptable boundaries of artistic expression, and that it is “seriously offensive to believers’ religious feelings and convictions”.
“It is a disrespectful parody of the Holy Mass, which is the heart of the faith, and not only in the Catholic understanding,” complained Hermann Glettler, the Bishop of Innsbruck.
Jan-Heiner Tück, a Viennese scholar of theology, wrote a highly negative review in Communio, a Catholic magazine, accusing the opera of a distinct “lack of imagination”.
“What should the ever-shrinking crowd of the Catholic faithful make of such a spectacle?” he wrote. 
“How should they look at themselves when the lifestyle they have chosen is made a laughing stock?”