The Exoplanets

A new production about the worlds we build with each other, and within ourselves.

In a quiet garden, composer Audrey reflects on a life shaped by love, music, and the foster family she and her partner Mari — an astrophysicist — created together. As her memories surface their story unfolds through a symphonic suite that blends live orchestral music with contemporary theatre.

Created by City of London Sinfonia and the award-winning company curious directive, THE EXOPLANETS explores how science and imagination shape the stories we tell and the families we create.

Inspired by the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, the music and storytelling of THE EXOPLANETS is based on real data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Building on the legacy of Holst’s The Planets, this production ventures further, to celestial bodies no one could have imagined a century ago. The music brings together new compositions by seven visionary composers — Theo Whitworth, Anibal Vidal, Robin Haigh, Blasio Kavuma, Samantha Fernando, Zhenyan Li and Pauchi Sasaki  — each exploring the sound of a different and newly discovered exoplanet.

This is a story about connection. A reflection on imagination, collaboration and the infinite pull of the unknown. 

Presented by City of London Sinfonia and curious directive in association with Hackney Empire. 

City of London Sinfonia’s New Frontiers season is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Foyle Foundation, and Resonate, a PRS Foundation initiative in partnership with Association of British Orchestras and BBC Radio 3. The Exoplanets is generously supported by Arts Council England, Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, The Vaughan Williams Foundation, and The Leche Trust.