LAIKA (Laika the Spacedog) is a participatory children’s opera that brings the true story of the first dog in orbit to the stage—told with warmth, humour, and an undercurrent of ethical urgency. Set in 1957, at the height of the Space Race, the opera follows the search for a dog to be sent atop the Sputnik rocket—until a small stray, Laika, is discovered in Moscow’s Gorky Park. The audience is invited into the action: counting down to the launch, meeting the people in power, and joining in songs that turn the theatre into a shared mission control. 

Forum Neue Kunst’s 2022 production in Oldenburg places this “science opera” squarely at the intersection of contemporary music theatre and family participation. The piece was created by composer Russell Hepplewhite with a libretto by Tim Yealland, and is written in a compact, tour-ready format (for four singers, four instruments, and a puppeteer)—a setup that supports intimacy, clarity, and direct contact with a young audience. The work’s original concept integrates puppetry, animation, the distinctive sound of a theremin, and communal singing, aligning musical storytelling with accessible science-and-history themes. 

In Oldenburg, Forum Neue Kunst presented LAIKA as a new staged production directed by Nils Braun. Performances took place at Zukunft Unternehmen (Oldenburg), with musical direction by Ilya Ram; Operabase also credits Takaya Kobayashi as set designer for this staging. As a family piece, it is commonly positioned for primary-school ages (often cited around 7–11, depending on the presenting context), while remaining engaging for adults through its emotional trajectory and the stark historical fact that Laika’s journey was celebrated as triumph even as it carried a tragic cost.