The stress sets in on the way to school. You’re too late, nobody wants to sit next to you, other students make fun of you and you’re bullied for the clothes you wear. Your grades are poor, your teachers are unfair, you’re worried because your parents are unemployed – or you struggle with memories of war and having to flee from your home, and these memories are still stuck with you.

The planned premiere of IMMMERMEEEHR, by composer Gordon Kampe and librettist Maria Milisavljević, is a piece of musical theatre for children of 8 years of age and older. The main roles are filled by the children’s choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as five soloists from the children’s choir. The remaining roles are held by four adult soloists and seven musicians. With this premiere, the Deutsche Oper Berlin seeks to follow up on its successful work in the Tischlerei creating a musical theatre repertoire for children and adolescents. However, the goal is also to create something entirely new: A piece in which children are singing and performing on stage for an audience of their own age, addressing topics that were developed in a participative process with director Franziska Seeberg – all as a professional, contemporary musical theatre production. This has all been planned with children of the children’s choir and a sixth-year class from the Brüder-Grimm-Grundschule in Berlin-Wedding. The children were instructed to write short stories and scenes about their own personal worries, issues and problems, while thinking about possible solutions. Even in the preparatory research phase, the students covered a broad range of topics, from pressure to achieve and experiences of exclusion in school to the traumas of flight and displacement. This material serves as the foundation for a through-composed piece of musical theatre scored by renowned composer Gordon Kampe. The production is geared toward everyone 8 years of age and older, and is to be as accessible as possible, such as via special services for persons with visual or hearing impairments.