Thursday, November 6, 2025, 7:30 PM

Street and Davis Performance Hall, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre

This performance will last approximately 60 minutes with no intermission.*

With its historical focus and intricate storytelling, this performance is best suited for adult audiences. This performance includes the use of fire and haze.

*Run times listed here are based on information provided at this time and are subject to change.

$25 general admission
$10 students with ID and youth 18 and under

15%-25% subscription discounts available

Subscriptions on sale Thursday, June 12, 10 AM

"An astonishingly inventive and unbearably touching production."

— BBC Radio

Rotterdam’s Hotel Modern creates fascinating performances that fuse drama, visual art, object theatre, puppetry, music, and film.

The company uses household paraphernalia — hundreds of props — to construct scale models of miniature worlds, then projects them on a large screen in real time. 

The Great War reconstructs World War I’s trench warfare with sawdust, potting soil, rusty nails, and parsley “trees” and incorporates actual letters from soldiers. Rain, wind, landslides, and explosions become staggeringly realistic on this diminutive battlefield as Hotel Modern exposes humanity’s war wounds in this deep, beautiful, and poetic work.​ 

The audience will be invited on stage to view the set after the performance.

About The Great War

1914-1918. Many millions of soldiers wrote letters to their loved ones from the trenches. Millions died in the fire and the mud. Millions came home with stories that could not be told, or could not be heard — just like after any war.

In this live animation film, Hotel Modern and foley artist Arthur Sauer attempt to make the experiences of these soldiers tangible. A miniature film set is installed in the theatre. The audience is witness to the reconstruction of the landscapes of the Western front on a miniature scale. Sauer provides the soundtrack to the film: a rap on the table sounds like a hand grenade exploding, the striking of a match is mustard gas being released. These images and sounds are interspersed with spoken testimonies and authentic letters home written by trench soldiers.

Members of Hotel Modern perform "The Great War," scattering sand down on a miniature set to mimic snow during wartime. A still of the screen during Hotel Modern's "The Great War" A member of Hotel Modern uses a video recorder to capture a minature set of a World War I battlefield draped in fog, made from dry ice. A still of the screen during Hotel Modern's "The Great War" A still of the screen during Hotel Modern's "The Great War" Members of Hotel Modern perform "The Great War" using an overhead projector and a large screen showing a U-boat. A still of the screen during Hotel Modern's "The Great War" A still of the screen during Hotel Modern's "The Great War"

Hotel Modern and Arthur Sauer were awarded the 2001 CJP Trophy (annual award by the Dutch Youth Card Association) and the 2002 Prix de Coppet for young European artists distinguished by the originality and diversity of their work.

This is Hotel Modern's first performance at the center.