Independent creatives from across Europe (and further afield) will present a wide range of work at this year's Voila! Europe, a festival bringing together theatre, cabaret, mime, and digital performance.
Running for a week in mid-November, in person events will be hosted at London's The Cockpit whose director Dave Wybrow has said "Our best future will depend upon our ability to make the most unlikely connections. The cross-border challenges we face require deepening cooperation, not retreating behind walls. Which is why The Cockpit continues to help produce and support Voila! Europe. Not because it brings together a glossy selection of designer theatre for an elite market, but because it brings together people who have something to say and are driven to say it before a live, engaged audience. Not because they all speak the same language and can take a good reception for granted, but specifically because they don't."
In person performances include
- Awakening, Ladder Art Company, Hungary (aerialists, no spoken language)
- Transit, Hunhu Productions, Hungary / UK / Zimbabwe (live musicians, poetry and movement, in English with Shona and Hungarian)
- Fear Eats Life, Strangers Like Me Collective, Austria / Canada / France / Ireland / UK (cheerful interactive cabaret, in English with French, German and Japanese)
- Unforgettable Girl, Created a Monster and Elisabeth Gunawan, Thailand / UK (biting satire infused with movement, text, neo-bouffon and dark clowning, in English with Thai)
- Murder Mystery, FBI: French British Improvisation, France / UK (in French)
- Withered Optimism, OftheJackel, UK (a comic ode to the tyranny of work, accessible for hearing and non-hearing audiences, no spoken language)
- Theatre In The Pound, A monthly scratch night in English with other languages),
Online events include work from Kupałaŭcy Independent Theatre Group Belarus, (in Belarusian with English subtitles), Studio Total Finland / Germany (in German with English subtitles), and GalataPerform Turkey (in Turkish with English subtitles).
There is also a programme of interactive online events from Hungary, Czech Republic and Italy with captioning and/or a choice of languages.
Voila! Europe 2021 runs from 15 to 21 November at The Cockpit Theatre and online.