“Where is the captain?” one of the men asks after the A little has been on the high seas for a long time and the theater evening in Munich’s Residenztheater has (very) gradually picked up speed. Good question. Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab is like Friedrich Schiller’s General Wallenstein: the boss is a long time coming. This increases expectations and fame. When Ahab (Barbara Horvath) finally appears after what feels like an hour, he conjures up in front of the skull of a whale – here as a 3D video skeleton projection – the majesty of that huge sea mammal that he wants to hunt and kill Life’s work, yes, has become an obsession: Moby Dick. Ahab once lost a leg in a fight with the “white devil”. But it drives him more than revenge. It is more existential, more universal. It is a battle of man versus nature, uniquely described by Melville in his 1851 novel of the century.