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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann European culture editor

‘He came to save us’: satirical play elevates Timmy the whale to Jesus-like figure

Cast members stand on stage with a blow-up replica of Timmy raised on a cross behind.
A performance of the play at the Ernst Deutsch theatre in Hamburg, in which a blow-up replica of Timmy is raised on a cross. Photograph: Georg Wendt/dpa

When people in Germany organised a daring rescue mission for a humpback whale stranded on the Baltic coast in April, it briefly looked like a country stricken with political division and economic anxiety was rallying around a common cause.

A new satirical play inspired by the episode, however, suggests the spectators, social media influencers, politicians and millionaires who flocked to the seaside in support never just wanted to rescue the cetacean that came to be nicknamed Timmy, but for Timmy to rescue them.

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