After 10 years hosted at The Cockpit theatre in Marylebone, Voila! Theatre Festival is delighted to announce its return and relaunch on a far wider scale.
From 4th – 24th November the festival will be reborn as a new multi-venue, panlingual festival reflecting a wide breadth of cultures, stories, and aesthetics, with challenge and change in the spotlight. Throughout its programme, Voila! Theatre Festival continues its welcoming grassroots ethos for both artists and audiences, even as it grows in scope and ambition.
Host venues will encompass Applecart Arts, Barons Court Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, The Playground Theatre, The Questors Theatre, The Space Theatre, Theatre Deli, Upstairs at the Gatehouse and of course The Cockpit, with the aim of providing a launchpad for early career artists working in theatre, platforming their work right across the capital.
With a focus on programming in as many languages as possible, Voila will see three weeks of performances, scratch nights, live streams, workshops, and events which will encompass a huge range of performances from all over the world. The programme is panlingual, multidisciplinary and fully committed to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).
To encourage as broad an audience as possible, the works encompass 35 languages present within the performances at the festival, with half the works being performed in both English and at least one other language. This is part of an endeavour to meet one aim of this collaborative festival umbrella model; which is to enable venues to engage more with their non-English speaking local communities, encouraging local people to get more involved in the arts, providing a space for social cohesion, support, and coming together in sharing cultural interests. The full programme is of course wholly accessible to English speakers, with subtitles/surtitles provided for those works not performed in English.
A small selection of the vast array of work on offer includes:
- THE COCKPIT: Thekla Gaiti’s Postdramatic (Thessaloniki Fringe Exchange Award winner) about an urban swimmer, looking for the sea, and a woman looking for her identity in a fragmented, absurd and ridiculous world. And Stampin in the Graveyard (made by returning artist Elisabeth Gunawan, who won The Stage Debut Award for her 2021 Voila show Unforgettable Girl) where we meet Rose – an AI chatbot that gives advice for the end of the world, powered by the memories of people whose worlds have already ended.
- THE PLAYGROUND THEATRE: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man – adapted and directed by internationally celebrated award-winning Lithuanian director Saulius Varnas, this work is based on a short story by F. Dostoevsky; ’A Ridiculous Man’, and tells the story of a man who plans to end his life, but instead falls asleep and dreams of a utopian Earth, deciding thereafter to preach his dream to the world. This will be accompanied by a 3-day workshop; a masterclass for theatre makers run by the acclaimed director
- The Playground will also host a special event – a Conference On Social and Political Responsibility of The Theatre Artist featuring renowned European and British theatre makers, directors, and playwrights sharing insights on theatre’s social responsibility and transformative power, who will engage in thought-provoking discussions, reflect on the social and political role of theatre makers, and explore how we can develop a new universal theatre language.
- BARON’S COURT THEATRE: Hide, a play about a pregnant woman who fantasises about the future life of her unborn daughter, knowing that one thing is certain: that future will be far from unproblematic. Sea levels are rising, the rain is endless, and the earth is shrivelling. And Gen X Has Left the Chat where we see a group of parents arrange a school party via Whatsapp. Things get complicated when a parent claims that his son is being bullied. Then ‘someone shares a photo clearly meant for another group… A comedy about screen addiction and generational divides. (part of “Flip Through Flanders”; an initiative for the translation of plays from Flemish).
- THEATRE DELI: Sharing is Caring: The European Dream – A London squat gets busted. What started as a tight-knit, multicultural community with dreams of utopian cohabitation descends into a zone of open fire where no one is safe. This metaphor for Europe examines our political inheritance and the challenges of conflict resolution amid polarised identities and escalating diversity. (Sharing is Caring was selected for Theatre Deli’s annual development residency program which offers financial support, space to work and make art, and meetings with staff at the organisation to support the project and the artist).
- APPLECART ARTS: I Didn’t Know I Was Polish – (which started at Voila! as part of its Miniatura scratch night); A timely journey through the complexities of identity and heritage, the work delivers fast-paced, comedic storytelling, and gut-wrenching realisations about borders, self-worth, and what it means to come from somewhere you’ve never been.
- THE QUESTORS THEATRE: Where We Meet – at Questors an interactive dance performance where audiences can hear the inner thoughts of the characters. Breaking taboos around mental health, the piece creates an empathetic and intimate experience, as audiences walk around the space, using innovative location-tracking technology.
- CAMDEN PEOPLE’S THEATRE: The World of Yesterday – an experimental cabaret, exploring the life of Stefan Zwelg as an Austrian Jewish writer, living through Europe’s descent into two World Wars. Through the use of verbatim theatre and projection, audiences will explore life caught between death and destruction, woven through with music and tragedy. (Director Anya Ostrovskaia was the VAULT Festival Innovation Award Winner 2023 for her show Theatre of Gulags).
- THE SPACE THEATRE: Sub Titles Over – Set on the first of October 2017, 3am. A knock on the door. Hours away from the referendum for Catalan independence, two anti-fascist activists hold hands in the dark, waiting for the Spanish police to arrive at any minute… A one-woman-show which uses subtitles almost as another character, exploring subtitles’ potential for control and manipulation within monolingual communities.
- UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE: Everybody Has to Be Somewhere – A unique live intermedia performance where time-travelling performers reshape their existence on stage. Two characters caught between past and future meet in the present, writing their narrative as a dynamic and unpredictable series of events that transforms the trajectory of their lives. (An intergenerational collaboration between emerging Chinese artist Xi Chen and Station House Opera director Julian Maynard Smith who has been working at the intersection of theatre and the visual arts since 1980).
Amy Clare Tasker co-Director of the Voila! Theatre Festival says “We are delighted to present this new levelled-up Voila! Theatre Festival. Our aim for Voila! is to connect outposts, hubs, individuals, vanguards and burgeoning theatrical energy – wherever it’s happening, whoever is making it happen, and whatever language it’s using.”
Katharina Reinthaller co-Director of the Voila! Theatre Festival says “We are immensely proud of the first year of programming this new incarnation of Voila! And we are especially proud of highlighting the inclusion of artists and audiences who don’t speak English at home, and are therefore excluded from cultural life in England; noting that language is a barrier to their engagement in the arts in London. London is home to the richest tapestry of cultures, with approximately 287 ethnic groups and nationalities calling the city home, with up to 30% of Londoners speaking a language other than English as their first language. This means that a huge number of people have little access to local venues as audiences to work that they can relate to in their native languages. We’re honoured to present a counterbalance to the status quo.
Dave Wybrow, Director of The Cockpit says “Voila! and all of the theatres involved in this new incarnation of the festival, have long focused on platforming small independent theatre companies. The loss of VAULT festival this year, Brexit difficulties, COVID, rising costs, and confused funding priorities have all damaged London’s support of grassroots theatre-making.
We want initiatives like Voila! to demonstrate that there are still avenues for dedicated theatre makers to develop their careers with the support of fringe theatres across the city, helping to breathe new life into performing arts in London and the creative industries beyond and providing a springboard for the theatre makers and cultural industry professionals of tomorrow.
