Subtitled A Grotesque Stagework in 9 Scenes,[1] the work concerns itself with the life of 17th-century Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher and was premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles 6 May 2016, a co-production between Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dutch National Opera, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw.

The title alludes to the Catholic idea that life is a great play with God as the author, a concept also found in Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage" passage.

He takes the unsuspecting Kircher, together with his patron Pope Innocent XI (who cannot see the boy), on a magical journey through ancient Egypt, China and Babylon.

Kircher was renowned for building fanciful theories based on weak material and as the journey unfolds his outlandish ideas begin to unravel before our eyes.

We learn that earlier in his life, Kircher had mistakenly given his soul to the devil instead of to God during his narrow escape from Protestant mercenaries.