Wojciech Rybicki: SISTERS – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Wojciech Rybicki:
SISTERS
On May 26, 1990, Chekhov’s ballet Three Sisters was scheduled at the Wrocław Opera, but the premiere never took place. Months earlier, Poles had witnessed the collapse of the communist regime, opening a new future with new desires, dances — and new Moscows. Perhaps these rapid socio-political changes caused the planned ballet to fade into oblivion. The sisters remained trapped in forgetfulness, waiting not only for Moscow but also for the promised premiere.
In 2019, three decades after the fall of communism, during a school theatre festival, Wojciech Rybicki staged his first work. His grandfather had to leave early due to illness. This left a suspension in the performance – and the grandfather never saw it to the end.
SISTERS is an attempt to restore not only a forgotten ballet premiere but also the unfinished premiere from 2019. This semi-documentary attempt of recovering dancing bodies simulates a ballet that never came into being, employing a grandchild’s longing. It is a story about intimacy, time and inheritance. A request to dancing ancestors to deliver a love letter to a grandfather who passed away in 2020 after a long battle with cancer.
It seeks traces of lost futures, setting in motion a poetic shift from that which haunts toward that which heals and liberates. It is an act of resistance against personal and institutional politics that use oblivion as a tool of censorship – erasing memories.
The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Early boarding
If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.
Choreography, performance: Wojciech Rybicki
Mentorship, dramaturgy support: Lulu Obermayer
Music: Ernest Borowski
A production by Wojciech Rybicki. SISTERS was developed within the framework of Forecast – Skills e.V. Media partners: Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
Wojciech Rybicki, born in Bytom, is a queer choreographer and performance artist whose work spans experimental performance, ballet ethnicity, and choreopolitical research. He treats choreography as a radical method for rethinking memory, futurity, and collective imagination, working at the intersection of deviation, tenderness and speculative fiction. He is a graduate of the PERA School of Performing Arts and currently a mentee for the 10th edition of Forecast (Berlin) with his project SISTERS. His choreographic works include F**ball* (Foksal Gallery, Warsaw), idontlikemetut(yo)u (Scena Robocza, Poznań) and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (AST Theatre, Kraków). Rybicki co-created Swans at the Grand Theatre Opera (Poznań), which is the winner of the FEDORA Audience Award. In 2025, he received the Bytom Municipality Cultural Grant for post-ballet circle. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Carrodunum Dance Company.