In this compelling piece, Katharina Reinthaller, Co-Director of Voila! Europe Theatre Festival, explores the profound emotional and political power of performing in one’s native language. She reflects on how reclaiming linguistic identity on stage can restore visibility, dignity, and a sense of belonging for artists who often feel sidelined in an English-centric arts world. Her insights offer a passionate call to honour multilingual voices and the rich cultural perspectives they bring to the theatre.
Servus. Hello. Buenas. Salut! سلام
These are the languages I speak, in order of fluency. Starting with German, or more particularly ‘Wienerisch’ (Viennese), my mother tongue, followed by English, which has been almost perfected by living in London for the past 12 years. I learned Spanish whilst travelling in Central America and working in a primary school there. I spoke it fluently at the time, but it’s definitely a bit rusty these days. French I learned in school for several years, but these days when trying to speak it, it often mixes with my not quite cemented Spanish, resulting in a weird amalgamation of the two languages and a brain freeze. And lastly Farsi, which I started to learn six months ago and currently am just about able to introduce myself and talk about the weather. Don’t ask me how my reading is going.
I have always loved learning languages, surprise. Some by choice, some by necessity, but discovering new words and idioms, experiencing the rhythms and sounds of languages and therein meeting and connecting with people and learning more about their customs, has shaped me both as a person and as an artist. Now living in London, one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the world (it is estimated that over 300 languages are spoken in the capital), is keeping me curious to continue learning and exploring – I enjoy walking down my High Street, hearing and seeing so many different languages and accents, grabbing an empanada from the Venezuelan stall at Seven Sisters Market or a Supermalt at Chuku’s, my neighbourhood Nigerian Tapas Place. My local High Street certainly isn’t a picture perfect place, but it is where the local community meets and connects. Where I chat to my Jamaican neighbour about the tomatoes she is growing, and my Romanian neighbour warns me about the rat in our garden.
But when I look at our theatre stages, I need to ask: Where are those 300 languages and where are all the beautiful accents? There are so many talented migrant artists out there who contribute so much to the creative industries in the UK, but we’re still seeing clumsy fake accents and very little international work on British Stages.
Partly this is due to the isolated nature of the UK being an island and Brexit certainly hasn’t helped, making it pretty much impossible for artists and shows to tour for years. And of course, the lack of funding always presents a huge obstacle. This has affected audiences, with less exposure, there is less appetite, and it can feel that, like in everyday life, there is a fear of the ‘other’ on stage. This isolation can be a perfect breeding ground for prejudices to become stronger, for opinions to become louder and igniting hostility against migrants, regardless of where they might be from. Language and accents are always embedded in a conversation about power dynamics and politics, about who gets to speak, who is expected to listen and what we want to hear. With the English language especially, we also need to acknowledge its history and why it is the language that dominates the world. There has always been less of a ‘need’ for British people to learn a different language, because regardless of where you are in the world, it is mostly the default shared common language. But with the lack of knowing and learning other languages, you also lose the ability to share cultures and spaces and connect to other people.
Art and cultural exchange are a huge contributor to breaking down barriers, to create a space for people to meet and communicate, to get to know each other. Specifically performing arts, where we have to be present and share a space together, where we have to be with each other. Platforming work in different languages, engaging with different communities and inviting audiences to experience something together, contributes to more openness and offers a space for interaction and exchange.
Theatre in itself is a medium of communication and just like a language, a tool for expressing identity, imagination and emotion. It lends itself to experimenting with languages – whether that is words, movement or a beat. But we all have to be there together, we need each other, artist and audience, to experience these moments.
There is this moment when you learn a language, where you stop thinking, you stop translating, stop searching, stop looking for meaning. You start to live within the language, even if you might not understand every single word. This is exactly what happens if you watch a show in a different language – you are able to understand on a deeper level, across the limitations of the spoken word and engage more purely. It opens up a liminal space for experiencing, rather than focusing on the need to understand everything. It encourages audiences to really engage with the work and interrogate what it means to them.
Theatre and performance can tell us so much about a country’s cultural landscape and its people – it is a great way to get to know your neighbour, whether that is as an artist or an audience member. It is this connection that happens more strongly in work that is multilingual, because the focus has to be on those in-between, non-translatable spaces.
All of this is very much reflected in the work that the Voila! Theatre festival programmes – both in terms of the panlingual element, but also in the style and concept of the performances. We want to create a space for people to meet and explore and contribute to breaking down barriers and stereotypes. This is true for artists and audiences alike – a lot of the shows at Voila! are made by artists from different backgrounds, speaking different languages, bringing different skills. So already in the creation of the works shown at the festival, we work across borders, nationalities and languages, and the shows reflect this. Audiences are brought into this experience, will go on an adventure, maybe learn a bit more about a certain culture and hopefully be more open and empathic towards their neighbours. And on the other hand, audiences might see themselves on stage for the first time, hear their mother tongue spoken, their accent, their stories.
We hope that this sentiment can spill over into our everyday lives, where we can stay open and engaged with our surroundings. It is vital to keep pushing for multilingual work, to challenge and break through borders and we’re proud that as a panlingual festival focusing on presenting work by migrant artists, Voila! contributes to this, alongside a lot of other fantastic companies and venues, that are advocating for more diversity on British stages.
Voila! Theatre Festival is London’s panlingual festival that celebrates emerging artists from all different backgrounds and cultures. The festival runs across eight London venues until 23rd November. Full information can be found on https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/
