Something Else at Deutsche Oper Berlin

"Sorry, but you're not like us"… "You don't belong here"… - just two of the sentences aimed over and over again at the harmless little creature with the curious name of Something Else. One day, just as Something Else is about to resign himself to being alone forever, he meets Something. Something insists that he is as 'else' as Something Else is, but actually Something's 'else' is different from Something Else's and Something Else wants nothing to do with him. But the sad expression on the face of Something as he turns to leave teaches Something Else that it's precisely this kind of response that's the problem. He hurries to fetch Something back. They have something in common after all, even if it's just the knowledge that everyone needs a friend and no one should reject someone just because they look or behave odd.

Awarded the 1997 UNESCO Award for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance, the picture book by Kathryn Cave and illustrator Chris Riddell also amounts to a manual or blueprint for the set design. A former pupil of Helmut Lachenmann, Berlin composer Juliane Klein is building on two successful children and teenager projects - her Westzeitstory from 2001 and Hyp'Op in 2003. This 2008 musical theatre production for children and adults provides audiences with scope for personal interpretation and association. Members of the Children's Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, acting alongside a narrator, are the main characters in this musical voyage of discovery for school children and adults. Who knows, together the two protagonists may even stumble upon some music that is "something else" and, precisely for that reason, exciting and lovable.