KASSANDRA – OR SONGS OF THE CANARIES, PREMIERE, APRIL 18 2026, MAXIM GORKI THEATER Berlin

“Every day, entire communities are confronted with ignorance and silencing. Their vulnerable voices are like the song of canaries in a coal mine. With the CASSANDRA CHORUS, I bring these voices to the stage to sing a song of empowerment together.
As long as the canaries continue to sing, we are alive.« – Marta Górnicka

The future seems dark. The impression of a multi-level political, social, ecological, and humanitarian catastrophe causes a sense of helplessness and fear. Cities lying in ashes, war rubble, flooded and dried-up terrains have become the landscapes of our thinking. They are echoing predictions and warnings that were ignored.
In ancient Troy, it was the fate of prophetess Cassandra to foresee sinister images of the future but to find her warnings unheeded.

Today the voices of entire social groups are faded out by ignorance, while at the same time, a proliferation of self-proclaimed Cassandras wields power over nations and people with apocalyptic forecasts. Polish theater director and author Marta Górnicka is not looking for prophecies of doom; instead, she sets out to find actual Cassandras of our time. Unheard voices. Voices under attack. Voices without a lobby.

She brings together a group of people spanning different generations, languages, abilities, and lived experiences – among them the youngest and the oldest female rappers of Berlin, children, teens, and many, many more. Forming a chorus of 21 Cassandras these contemporary voices write a revisited, multi-voiced story of Cassandra. Together they examine what we, as a society, tend to remove from our field of vision, what lies ahead of us and before our very eyes, what remains unheard inside of us, what separates us from each other, and what we have in common. And they sing a powerful song.

With 21 Cassandras: Aziza A., Debbie Arega, Gabriela Beltramino, Robin Francis Denner, Sofia Gubar, Abib Kilian Hempe, Helena Kauschke, Viktoriia Kosorukova, Flavia Lefèvre, Jay Mayhew, Karolina Nägele, Joanna Niemirska, Cintia Sofia De Pina Pires, Mathis Reinhardt, Marcela Römhild, Iga Rudnicka, Fifi Rutkowski, Sophia Slamani, Veza van der Sman, Maimouna Sow, Sonnhild Trujillo, Karyna Yağiz