“One of the great Paper Planet moments”

In June, Polyglot Theatre was honoured to open Theater der Welt in Chemnitz with Paper Planet. 

Theater der Welt (Theatre of the World) is Germany’s largest festival for international performing arts. It was founded by the ITI Centre Germany in 1981, and “has since presented groundbreaking achievements and developments in theatre from all continents every three years.” 

The 2026 Festival program was collectively developed by a team of nine international curators: Simon Abrahams, Australia; Joshua Dalledonne, Canada; Rodrigo González Alvarado, Argentina; Faye Kabali-Kagwa, South Africa; Nikos Mavrakis, Greece; Aya Nabulsi, Saudi Arabia, Srishti Ray, India; Ndèye Mané Touré, Senegal; Yuan Zhang, China. This unique approach to the Festival’s artistic direction resulted in, “a polyphonic dramaturgy drawing from diverse cultural contexts, which deliberately juxtaposes different perspectives.”

Paper Planet is a universally accessible experience that families find utterly captivating. Invited into a forest of tall cardboard trees, children and families explore the space, and then add to this strange and delicate planet using only paper, tape and their imaginations. Theatre and play merge in this magical place, as creatures, plants, costumes, characters, stories and adventures spring to life.

Paper Planet production photos: Nasser Hashemi, Theater der Welt Chemnitz.

Across a two-day bump-in, our touring team filled Hartmannfabrik with towering trees. Everyone was thrilled to discover their names, among hundreds more, embedded in the Theater der Welt logo. Watch a work-in-progress video on Instagram here.

Behind-the-scenes photos. Left: Ally Harvey. Middle & right: Rainbow Sweeny.

Following an opening ceremony on Thursday 18 June, children, families and school groups arrived to create and play. Across 10 performances, we welcomed close to 600 people.

“Briony was dressed as a wolf and when the audience first came in, she had a gorgeous interaction with a tiny child who would have been about 18 months old. During the session, there was a child sitting on the main lily pad quietly working on something. They didn’t want any help and clearly had it all organised. Suddenly, they held up a pair of animal ears they’d made to Briony, who quickly rushed to get back into the wolf, and they had a wonderful time being wolves together. Over time the wolf pack grew, until nearly all the kids were dressed as wolves. Meg had made a Wee Willy Winky costume which had a moon on a stick, and all the wolves were howling at the moon. We decided to do a wolf-pack-moment for the ending, and Zak quickly made a full moon and lowered it from the balcony while the wolf pack howled. 

It was one of the great Paper Planet moments.” Lexie Wood, Stage Manager show report

We were overjoyed to reconnect with our friends and creative collaborators, Papermoon Puppet Theatre, from Yogyakarta. Our team was deeply moved by their work Stream of Memory, which received a hugely positive response from audiences, and their artists visited us in Paper Planet to create and play.

Ally Harvey, our Executive Director & Co-CEO, also joined the team in Chemnitz. Having started with Polyglot in January, this was her first Paper Planet season and first international tour with the company.  

She writes, “Watching the children enter the space and transform it was joyful, but it also crystallised something for me – that Polyglot genuinely trusts children – empowering them to be socially connected and creatively charged. Polyglot is dedicated to making work available to all children – where they are welcomed and invited to become collaborators: to create, imagine, make decisions and shape the experience alongside our artists. Their ideas matter; their voices matter and their presence IS the work. Wherever our work is presented, children instinctively understand the invitation: come in, play, make something and help create this world with us.” 

Alongside the season, Ally visited the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom, connecting with colleagues.

Left: Ally, Kathleen & Dagmar at Theater o.N. Right: Ally with Rachel (Esplanade Singapore).

Following Theater der Welt, the Polyglot team carefully transferred the Paper Planet set to Terra Nova Campus, a Chemnitz school for young people with disability. Across 12 sessions, nearly 300 students and educators created and played among the cardboard trees.  

“One session was two classes of 6-8 year olds with a broad variety of mobility and communication modes. It was a great example of what we saw right across the week – students helping one another with communication, physical tasks, movement and generally taking care of each other in a relaxed and natural way… The teachers and staff were all really engaged and generous and assisted in facilitation.” Artist workshop report

Behind-the-scenes photos: Rainbow Sweeny

“Meg was playing a seal which involved moving around without the use of her legs. One child in a wheelchair wanted to join her, so climbed out of their chair, wrapped their legs in paper seal-style and the two spent the session deep in seal play.” Artist workshop report

Paper Planet production photos: Nasser Hashemi, Theater der Welt Chemnitz.

Thank You

Polyglot Theatre’s 2026 Chemnitz tour was assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Polyglot is also supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Polyglot’s European market development activity was assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and Austrade’s Export Market Development (EMDG) program, and the Betty Amsden Foundation.