Resident Choreographer Christian Spuck's Leonce and Lena, based on the satirical comedy by the famous 19th century german author Georg Buechner, tells the story of Leonce, prince of Popo and Lena, princess of Pipi, who have been promised to one another in marriage since birth but have never met. On the eve of their wedding, they both flee their respective boring principalities only to meet in a deserted inn where they proceed to fall in love. Thus the recalcitrant lovers are doubled crossed by fate and in the end take their predestined places as king and queen.
Spuck sarcastically caricatures the pompous and stifling court of the decadent nobility, aided and abetted by the brilliant sets and costumes of designer Emma Ryott, whose characters resemble wind up dolls and automatons more than humans and whose machinations are appropriately presented to the audience on a revolving stage.