London’s landmark festival of European theatre will return for a seventh year this November to showcase boundary pushing work from across the continent.
Voila! will feature a packed programme of twenty-three shows from twenty-six countries, including Lithuania, Norway, Estonia, Croatia and Bulgaria. This year’s festival will be supported by the Hungarian Cultural Centre London and be headlined by the country’s hit show, European Freaks.
New for this year, Rich Mix will open the doors to its east London venue as it stages work alongside The Cockpit to support the development of three brand new works-in-progress with residencies.
Whilst the political chaos in the UK and the rise of far-right groups across Europe give weight to the sentiment of the festival – which champions itself as a safe and creative space for artists to express themselves and explore ideas – the shows presented will look both to and beyond these experiences.
Humans and robots improvise together in Rosetta Code, a comedy of speech recognition errors featuring Arabic, Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, and Swedish translations; whilst a woman bakes traditional pepper biscuits to bring her granddaughter home in English/Croatian play Pepper and Honey.
Bringing together creatives from Greece, Italy, Japan and the UK, The Medea Hypothesis follows the breakdown of a mother/son relationship amid ecological disaster; and Portuguese writer/performer Nuna Livhaber offers an Afrofuturist manifesto for the 21st century in I Will Tell You in a Minute.
And finally, headlining this eclectic festival will be Hungarian company STEREO AKT with their hit show, European Freaks, in which dysfunctional humanoid robots invite you to help them create EU 2.0.
When: 4th – 17th November 2019
Where: The Cockpit, Gateforth St, Marylebone, London NW8 8EH and Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA
£: Ticket prices vary, depending on the event
More info: www.voilafestival.co.uk
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