Language as Connection: Inside London’s Multilingual Theatre Festival, Voila!

Across three buzzing weeks this November, Voila! Theatre Festival returns to London (3-23 November) with an explosion of multilingual performance spanning 110 shows, 470 artists, and over 70 languages, presented in eight venues city-wide. Founded at The Cockpit in 2012 as a small bilingual celebration of French and English theatre, Voila! has since evolved into a major platform for migrant and multilingual artists from around the world.

Now in its 12th year, the festival’s mission is as urgent as ever: to challenge the idea of English as theatre’s default language, to create space for stories that cross borders, and to celebrate the cultural richness of a city where more than 250 languages are spoken every day.

We spoke with Co-Festival Directors Katharina Reinthaller and Fae Fichtner to talk about how Voila! has grown from its early days into a global celebration of linguistic diversity, and why connection, not just comprehension, is at the heart of the work they programme.

Voila! Is now in its 12^th year. How has the festival evolved since it first began?

Katharina: Voila began in 2012 as a French and English bilingual festival, when The Cockpit’s director Dave Wybrow happened to programme a handful of French companies around the same time. Sharlit Deyzac (who headed the festival for the coming years), was an actor in one of those shows, and in the debrief after the festival, she had so many ideas that Dave invited her to take charge. Voila! Was born. The festival ran as a French-English bilingual festival for a couple of years and then responded to the Brexit referendum by expanding to include all European languages from 2017 onward, as Voila! Europe Theatre Festival. Now, with our new model from 2024, we have expanded the festival to embrace all world languages, and we’re Voila! Theatre Festival once again.

How do you hope audiences will engage with work in languages they don’t necessarily speak? How do you facilitate experiences so that everyone can enjoy and understand the show?

Katharina: A lot of the shows at Voila! Will still have English as their ‘base’ language, interwoven and infused with other languages. Through non-textual context, and the performance of the actors, there is usually no issue of understanding and experiencing a performance, even if you don’t speak a particular language. And for me this is one of the most beautiful moments at Voila! – when I see a show with a language I don’t understand but my heart and brain have no problem connecting the dots. I enjoy sitting in this liminal space, letting the rhythm of language carry me through a scene. We hope that our audiences can also embrace these moments and be surprised at how much they understand. I think theatre is not there to be a hundred percent understood, as an audience member, you get to interrogate a narrative or concept and decide what a certain work means to you. 

We do however also have a number of shows in the festival that are performed wholly in a different language. This is when we provide surtitles, so it is easy to follow along.  

Do you think audiences are more open now to seeing work that challenges the idea of English as the default language of theatre?

Katharina: With the UK being an island, it has always felt a little more isolated from cultural exchanges and languages by nature. Brexit contributed to an even more hostile attitude towards migration, and therein also made it more difficult for shows and artists to tour. It certainly felt like much needed cultural exchange was missing, and that might have affected the curiosity of audiences. But I do feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there seems to be a bit more international work coming over – Battersea Arts Centre, The Barbican and South Bank Centre as well as companies like Foreign Affairs or Projekt Europa all do vital work in bringing work in different languages and performance styles to a broader audience. And my motto is ‘Audiences don’t know what they like until they see it’. So yes, I think there has been thankfully a shift in theatre audiences being more curious and open and we hope that Voila! Can contribute to opening up the theatrical landscape even more and challenge the notion of ‘British’ theatre or what constitutes as such. 

Fae: It’s worth remembering that we offer a platform for emerging artists and international work that the established venues Katharina mentioned rarely can facilitate. Voila! Is about bringing artists together that share the migrant experience. 

What impact would you like the festival to have on London’s cultural scene?

Katharina: We hope to highlight the importance of fringe theatre – Voila! Has always been a place where established and emerging artists meet and connect, but these spaces have become increasingly scarce. We feel very lucky to have the support of The Cockpit and United Colleges Group, who believe in the importance and ethos of the festival. So many great shows and artists have taken their first steps at fringe theatre festivals, and it can be easy to forget that. Theatre and performance work needs an audience to exist and evolve. We hope that the festival has an impact on the value of fringe theatre, on the importance of bringing together audiences and artists and of course highlights the positive contribution of migrant artists to the creative industries.  

Do you see Voila! As a model for other festivals in terms of inclusivity and international collaboration?

Katharina: We want Voila! To contribute to a welcoming and culturally curious theatre landscape in London and the UK, where migrant artists have plenty of opportunities to showcase their work, and where international artists can come and share the latest cutting-edge theatre from around the world. And we hope that Voila! Can inspire other venues and festivals to include more panlingual and migrant led work into their programme too. We know programming a festival or venue can be a tricky beast, and many different factors go into planning a season, but we would like to see a little bit more international, panlingual, migrant led work, especially on the mid scale sector. 

Fae: We offer our peers a place to watch these shows and hope they will have the courage to connect with an artist they liked and programme their work in the future where appropriate.

How can theatre help connect people across different languages and cultures?

Katharina: I think festivals and events like Voila are really important because they open up a conversation, a space to meet each other, and connect, to break down those barriers and borders, hence our slogan – border busting theatre for citizens of everywhere. Theatre and performance can tell us so much about a country's cultural landscape and its people - I think it is a great way to get to know your neighbour, whether that is as an artist or an audience member. We can start with the little every day gestures that might fight the division and fear we are being exposed to through media and politics and contribute to fighting stereotypes and negative headlines around migration. 

Voila! Theatre Festival runs from 3–23 November across eight London venues - The Cockpit, Barons Court Theatre, Theatro Technis, Theatre Deli, Etcetera Theatre, The Playground Theatre, The Questors Theatre and The Space. For tickets and more information, visit www.voilafestival.co.uk.