David Bowie Immersive Show 'Stage' Set for Berlin Premiere in February

A David Bowie immersive concert experience called Stage will have its world premiere on 14 February at Berlin's Uber Arena, Variety reported. The production is presented in association with the Berlin Film Festival.

The show is built around footage from Bowie's 1978 Isolar II World Tour. That material was discovered and restored, and it shows Bowie performing songs from his album 'Heroes'.

Filmmaker Brett Morgen found the original camera negatives while he was working on Moonage Daydream, his earlier documentary about the singer. Those negatives became the starting point for the new project.

Stage is a collaboration between Rob Hallett's company Wonderworld, the David Bowie Estate and Morgen. Each partner brings a different role. The estate looks after Bowie's legacy, Wonderworld builds the live experience, and Morgen shapes the footage into the show.

The presentation uses three screens. Large-scale projections sit alongside transparent LED screens, which are see-through panels that can display images while the audience can still see past them. Lighting design is by Patrick Woodroffe, and the sound mix was created by Paul Massey. The audio uses 7.1 surround, a system with seven main speakers around the room plus one for low bass, along with spatial audio design, which places sound so it seems to move around the listener.

Morgen will also be a headline speaker in the talks programme of the European Film Market, the trade market that runs alongside the Berlinale. Sales agents and buyers use the market to decide which films and projects they will back, so his talk puts the project in front of the people who help shape what reaches cinemas and screens.

Berlin is the first confirmed stop in the public calendar for Stage, and the February date gives the team a few months to bring the three-screen set-up and sound system together for audiences.