"Theater of the World" brings global diversity to Saxony

From pop opera and drama to performances and puppet theater: the "Theater der Welt" festival brings 33 international productions to Chemnitz. In addition to world premieres, plays that have not yet been seen in Germany or Europe will also be shown. Christoph Dittrich, one of the festival's three directors, said that Chemnitz's year as European Capital of Culture 2025 will be extended with Germany's most important festival of international stage art.

At the kick-off on June 18, visitors can look forward to an installation by the Polyglot Theatre from Australia. Under the title "Paper Planet", young and old can create a walk-in world out of cardboard and paper. In the evening, "Split Tooth: Saputjiji" by Tanya Tagaq from Canada will be shown in the opera house. The play is set in the Arctic and deals with indigenous identity and self-empowerment. The focus is on an adolescent girl who is shaped by overpowering nature and a disintegrating indigenous community.

Space for indigenous voices and perspectives

The festival is held in a different city every three years. The program for the current edition from 18 June to 5 July was developed by nine international curators. According to the information provided, the selected pieces deal with global themes such as origin, identity and power relations. According to the organizers, indigenous voices and perspectives will also be given space and experiences of colonialism and resource exploitation will be dealt with.

The programme includes the pop opera "Nkoli: A Fierce & Fabulous Life" about the South African anti-apartheid campaigner Simon Nkoli. And in a German-Chinese co-production, Alfred Döblin's novel "Mountains, Seas and Giants" will be brought to the stage under the title "Air Mass". The visual concept for this comes from the artist Ai Weiwei. In the production "Blur", the audience will use VR goggles to move through artificially created worlds. It is about the question of how we perceive finiteness at a time when biotechnologies and artificial intelligence are trying to abolish an end.

Weimer: "strong signal for the universality of art"

"Theater der Welt 2026 in Chemnitz sends a strong signal for the universality of art and its ability to connect people across borders, languages and different cultures," writes Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (non-party) in a welcoming address. The unprecedented curation by a team of nine young people from all continents is particularly groundbreaking. "They represent a diversity of perspectives."

According to the organizers, the festival is supported by the federal government, the state of Saxony and the city of Chemnitz with a total of three million euros.