With poetic puppet theatre from Indonesia, political opera from South Africa and strong drama from the Czech Republic, the first three programme highlights of the THEATER DER WELT 2026 festival are now going on sale. Germany's largest international festival for contemporary stage art will take place in Chemnitz from 18 June to 5 July, directly following its successful year as European Capital of Culture. The full festival programme will be published on 26 March 2026.
On 19 and 20 June , the Indonesian Papermoon Puppet Theatre will celebrate its European premiere in Chemnitz with"Stream of Memory", a visually stunning puppet theatre show. With handmade puppets made of wood, fabric and light combined with dance, music and video, the giant creature Kali takes the intergenerational audience on a journey through cities, rivers and forests. For two decades, the Papermoon Puppet Theatre has been one of the most important voices in contemporary puppet theatre in the international theatre world. Inspired by the longing for closeness and connection, this work tells a story about remembering, forgetting and transience, entirely without words.
Grand opera comes from South Africa: Developed by the South African composer Philip Miller and staged by Rikki Beadle-Blair and John Trengove, "Nkoli The Vogue Opera" tells the true story of the black anti-apartheid activist Simon Nkoli on 23 and 24 June . The musical theatre is not a biographical portrait, but a hybrid evening with musicians, singers and dancers who welcome the audience to a grandiose ball, full of energy, joie de vivre and with a clear political message.
In a co-production with the THEATRE OF THE WORLD 2026 festival, the sought-after Czech director Dušan David Pařízek is currently staging "Amadoka" at Prague's Divadlo X theatre, an evening of theatre based on the epochal trilogy of novels by Ukrainian author Sofia Andrukhovych. Following its world premiere there in April, the production with an outstanding ensemble can be seen at the Chemnitz Opera House on 27 and 28 June. The trilogy spans an entire century of Ukrainian history with the stories of three women. The starting point is the mythical Lake Amadoka, which is said to have existed in what is now western Ukraine, but has now disappeared without a trace. Driven by the cruelty of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the production searches for a narrative of how the systematic erasure of existence and memory works.
Tickets for the three productions are available now on 0371 4000-430 and www.theaterderwelt.de.
