It's Gonna Rain

Samuel Chalela Puccini – Person mit schwarzem Hut und hellem Kleid steht in einem Bus und hält sich an der Stange fest. Andere Personen sitzen auf grünen Sitzen.

In 1965, amid the Civil Rights Movement, racial conflict and profound social transformation in the United States, Steve Reich recorded the voice of Black street preacher Brother Walter declaring: “It’s gonna rain.” Walter’s words warn of an approaching catastrophe and of the moment when escape is no longer possible. This warning became a loop in Reich’s work: repeated, fractured and transformed.

Sixty years later, Opera Lab Berlin reimagines Reich’s It’s Gonna Rain, Come Out and Piano Phase as a new work of music and dance theater. Through choreography and Reich’s radical musical experimentation, the piece follows the mechanics of attention itself: how repetition creates meaning, how visibility creates power and how a center of power emerges when attention repeatedly concentrates on the same people, voices and images.

Artists/Collaborators: Ela Bahena (Kostüm- und Bühnendesign), Daniel Brunet (Blick von außen), Samuel Chalela Puccini (Daramaturgie & Video), Evan Gardner (Künstlerische Leitung), Ben Goldby (Dramaturgie & Regieassistenz), Jung Haesoo (Lichtdesign), Ye Juntao (Produktions Assistenz), Ruben Nsue (Regie & Choreografie), Steve Reich (Musik), Martin Rink (Make Up), Christa Schleiff (Produktions Manager), Youka Snell (Musikalische Regie), Guiseppe Trovato (Produktions Assistenz), Felix von Dohlen (Live Sound), Francesca Verga, Omí, Evan Gardner, Ruben Nsue, Astan Meyer

It’s Gonna Rain is a production of Opera Lab Berlin and English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

Opera Lab Berlin

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 28/November/2026 20:00 ( 5 more dates )
• Venue English Theatre Berlin
• Address Fidicinstraße 40, 10965 Berlin-Kreuzberg