Stage Director · Set Designer
Sabine Theunissen is a Belgian stage director and set designer. A graduate in architecture from La Cambre (Brussels), she began her career in Allestimento Scenico at Teatro alpa Scala in Milan, before joining the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, where she worked for seventeen years as a set design assistant within the design office.
In 2002, she met William Kentridge there, initiating a decisive collaboration. Together, they created The Magic Flute (La Monnaie, 2005), marking the beginning of a series of major productions: The Nose (Metropolitan Opera, New York; Opéra de Lyon; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence), Refuse the Hour and Refusal of Time (Documenta XIII, Kassel), Winterreise (Vienna, 2014), Lulu (Met, ENO, DNO, 2015), Wozzeck (Salzburg, Met, Sydney, 2017–2019), The Head and the Load (Tate Modern, Ruhrtriennale, Armory NYC,2018), Waiting for the Sibyl (Opera of Rome, 2019), the film Oh to Believe in Another World (Lucerne Festival, 2022), the sets for Great Yes, Great No (Luma Arles, 2024) and for Orfeo (Glyndebourne, 2026).
Her collaboration with Kentridge also extends to installations and exhibitions: Beijing and Seoul (2015), Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2015), Whitechapel, Louisiana, Salzburg, and Manchester (2016), Bruges (2017), Frankfurt (2018), Sydney and Adelaide (2018–2019), Cape Town (2020), LaM (Villeneuve-d’Ascq, 2020), Mudam (Luxembourg, 2021), Kaunas, the Royal Academy of London, and the Broad Museum Los Angeles (2022), Luma Arles and Sharjah (2024), the exhibition Listen to the Echo (Essen, Folkwang Museum, and Dresden, 2025), the exhibition The battle between Yes and No in Kunsthalle Praha, as well as I am not me, the horse is not mine now on in Bozar, Brussels.
She has also designed the scenography for major exhibitions such as The Body in Indian Art (Europalia, Bozar, 2013), 1000 m² of Desire (CCCB, Barcelona, 2016), the Gwangju Biennale (2023), Hermès’ Christmas window displays (Paris, 2023) and SF Moma (2026). For the stage, she has created sets for works by Hélène Theunissen, Aurore Fattier, Michèle Noiret, Lillo Baur, and Rufus Wainwright.
In 2024, she made her debut as a stage director with The Abduction from the Seraglio for the 10th anniversary of the Marvão International Music Festival, followed by White Box (Stockholm, 2024), later presented at the Spoleto Festival USA and at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels) in October 2025.
Author of the short film White Box Jacket (2021), supported by the Film Lab of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, she regularly teaches at art and architecture schools (La Cambre, Pavillon Bosio, Stockholm University, Eye Museum…) and leads international masterclasses, notably at the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg.
In 2016, she founded le Squatelier, a studio dedicated to stage and scenographic creation and research. Conceived as a space for experimentation and transmission, it hosts young artists and students whom she trains in professional practice.
Visual Archive
A selection of photographs | All photographs courtesy of the artist
Exhibition: Bozar, Brussels
The current exhibition William Kentridge: I am not me, the horse is not mine at Bozar, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh and designed by Sabine Theunissen, will be shown until 7 March 2027.
The exhibition is a co-production of Bozar and ΕΜΣΤ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens where it will be presented from June until December 2027.
Opera: L’Orfeo
L’Orfeo by Monteverdi at Glyndebourne, East Sussex for Festival 2026. Directed by William Kentridge, set design by Sabine Theunissen, costume design by Greta Goiris, lighting design by Urs Schonebaum, video design by Janus Fouche.
Opera: Prima Donna
Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera (Kungliga Operan), Stockholm
2025 October-December: Kungliga Operan Stockholm
2020 October : Kungliga Operan Stockholm
Opera | Operan Play, digital stage of the Royal Swedish Opera
Director : Mårten Forslund
Production: Kungliga Operan Stockholm
Opera: Wozzeck
2025 April: Canadian Opera Company (Toronto)
2022 May: Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona)
2022 March: Opéra Bastille (Paris)
2019 December: The Metropolitan Opera (New York)
2019 January: Sidney Opera House
2017 August : Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg)
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922, and first performed in 1925.
Director : William Kentridge
Coproduction : Salzburger Festspieler (Salzburg) + Met (NYC) + Toronto Opera House
Dance: White Box
2025 October: La Monnaie / De Munt, Brussels
2025 May: US Premiere, Spoleto festival USA, Charleston
2024 November: Premiere, Orionteatern, Stockholm
2023 October : Technical workshop, Brown Arts Institute
Director, Concept & Set Design : Sabine Theunissen
Choreographer & Musical direction : Gregory Maqoma
Dancers: Chauke, Fana Tshabalala
Performer: Andrea Fabi
Musicians: Catherine Graindorge, Angelo Moustapha
Voice Over: Maria Weisby
Puppeteer: Meghan Williams
Executive producer: The Office performing arts + film
Co-production: Orionteatern Stockholm
Trailer: White Box
Conception & Set Design: Sabine Theunissen | Choreography: Gregory Maqoma
Video courtesy of: La Monnaie / De Munt via YouTube
On 11 July 1897, the young photographer Nils Strindberg sets off on a scientific expedition to the Arctic led by Swedish engineer Salomon Auguste Andrée. Their mission? To fly over the North Pole in a hot air balloon to Canada or Russia, depending on where the wind would bring them. The explorers were waved off by excited politicians, international journalists and a brass band. Shortly after, all trace of them vanished – until thirty-three years later, when their bodies were found by chance in the ice of Kvitøya, the ‘White Island’, together with a box full of undeveloped film rolls …
WHITE BOX is the directorial debut of Belgian set designer Sabine Theunissen, known for her collaboration of many years with William Kentridge (Lulu, Wozzeck, The Nose). Together with choreographer Gregory Maqoma, she distils the epic adventure of the polar travellers into a metaphorical comedy about scientific exploration, one man’s quest for fame, and human hubris in the face of nature.
CAST
Stage direction, set design, film & libretto SABINE THEUNISSEN
Choreography & musical direction GREGORY MAQOMA
Composition CATHERINE GRAINDORGE
Costume design GRETA GOIRIS
Lighting design ELLEN RUGE
Dramaturgy LARA FOOT
Video Compositer JOHANNES FERM WINKLER
Directors Assistant & Video Orchestrator YLVA MY ALINA NORLIN
Percussion arrangements ANGELO MOUSTAPHA
Mechanical Object Designer JONAS LUNDQUIST
Dancers THULANI CHAUKE, FANA TSHABALALA
Performer ANDREA FABI
Musicians CATHERINE GRAINDORGE, ANGELO MOUSTAPHA
Voice Over MARIA WEISBY
Puppeteer MEGHAN WILLIAMS
Executive Producer THE OFFICE performing arts + film
Co-production ORIONTEATERN STOCKHOLM
Special thanks to the generous support of the Josefsson Foundation and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. White Box was developed in residence at Brown Arts Institute, La Monnaie / De Munt and the Orionteatern.
Artist’s Website
To explore more of Sabine Theunissen’s stage designs, collaborations, and upcoming projects,
visit her official website: Sabine Theunissen ↗