Sunville

Fr 25.9.26 Sa 26.9.26 Su 27.9.26 We 30.9.26 Th 1.10.26 Fr 2.10.26
Sunville
Fr 25.9.26, 20:00
from € 35 / 18
World premiere, Premiere | Tischlerei
Sunville
Sa 26.9.26, 20:00
from € 35 / 18
Tischlerei
Sunville
Su 27.9.26, 18:00
from € 35 / 18
Tischlerei
Sunville
We 30.9.26, 20:00
from € 35 / 18
Tischlerei
Sunville
Th 1.10.26, 20:00
from € 35 / 18
Tischlerei
Sunville
Fr 2.10.26, 20:00
from € 35 / 18
Tischlerei

Afrofuturistic musical theatre by Sofia Jernberg, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Stephanie Thiersch

Opera Unlimited Tischlerei
«The sea is a wild animal…»

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Composition, Conductor
Direction, choreography, stage concept
Stephanie Thiersch
Stage design
Sonja Füsti
Costume design
Lauren Steel
Concept, curation, dramaturgy
Elisa Erkelenz
Dramaturgy
Flavia Wolfgramm
English translations
Roland Glasser
German translations
Lena Müller

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Soprano
Countertenor
Storytelling, Performance
Performance
Double bass, musical rehearsal
Ole Morten Vågan
Saxophone
Espen Reinertsen
Piano
Kit Downes
String quartet
Musiker*innen des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin

A musical theater production by Sofia Jernberg (music), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (text), and Stephanie Thiersch (director)
World premiere at the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 25 September 2026

Survivors of the sea, refugees, exiles come together on an island. They create a new society from scratch without the old rules of origin or power. Is it possible to have a community built on love? The hosts for this evening are two intergalactic collaborators: Sun Ra, pioneer of Afrofuturism in response to omnipresent racism, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, who sought to flee the constriction of the art world. Both are fascinated by interplanetary vibrations, read the same spiritual book about love in the 1970s and set the cosmos free.

«The truth about the planet Earth is a bad truth,» sings Sun RA in 1972. He selects music and, with a dose of irony, space as a place of refuge. Afrofuturism is about «resistance through imagination» (Adyam Tesfamariam). This performance follows this trail and seeks out new answers. Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila takes us into the «Second World,» a place where African cosmologies, Black science-fiction and biting satire collide. Sometimes the only solution is to break out into laughter before we can continue dreaming.

Sofia Jernberg’s music is a place of resonance and contradiction: Contemporary composition meets spiritual jazz, improvisation is juxtaposed with griot tradition. Both – Jernberg and Mujila – are on the stage as singer and storyteller. Stephanie Thiersch’s choreography turns the space into a fluid body where language, sound and movement vibrate in permanent tension.

What is true and what is fiction? What is past and what is future? Sunville dives into an uncertain underwater world of the imagination, asking the seemingly simple question: How do we want to live?
Special notice Residency Fiston Mwanza Mujila
LanguageIn German, English, French and Swahili
Duration80 Minutes / No interval
Age recommendationrecommended from age 15
Further informationFree choice of seats
Co-productionIn co-production with Wiener Festwochen and VOICES BERLIN FESTIVAL. With generous support from Deutsche Bank Foundation and the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin.

«Sunville»

New productions 26/27