Jake Mace
Leah Eliaan is the Director, Producer and Deviser of upcoming Voila! Theatre Festival experimental piece Flitsmeister, exploring the lives of a group of young people who face the tension between their youthful innocence and the looming shadow of societal and personal reckoning, against the backdrop of the rise of the far right in Europe. With plenty to unpack, we caught up with Leah for a pixelated pint to find out more about what inspired the show and the process the ensemble have been on to create it.
You can catch Flitsmeister as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival in London at The Cockpit Theatre tonight Sunday November 9th from 5pm (55mins). Tickets (£15) are available through the Voila! Theatre Festival Online Box Office.
Jake: Hi Leah, Flitsmeister explores the lives of a group of young people who face the tension between their youthful innocence and the looming shadow of societal and personal reckoning. Tell us more about that setting, the people involved, and what inspired the piece.
Leah: I didn’t understand a lot when this was first created back in April 2025. The rise of the radical right wing in Europe became something you couldn’t escape from. Living in London made it worse. Questions piled up. How can we, in current times, go back to this extreme setting in politics? I wanted to understand that. Young people are not young anymore; they need to fight every day for their rights. They can’t go out and have fun losing their minds to the spirit of party life; instead, they think about how to prevent the Third World War and how to afford a drink in a pub. Why should we be deprived of all the joys of life just because we can’t afford to? That’s why I wanted to make this show, to shed light on the current state. I found Jibbe Willems’ script, following a right-wing girl and a left-wing politician. That got completely flipped around and created an understanding on both sides.
The people that are involved are mostly migrants. So, we all gather our shared fears that represent themselves differently in our cultures and countries, and we put them on the floor.
Jake: How has the creative process been of putting the show together? Give us an idea of the journey you’ve been on with it so far.
Leah: We decided to do a two-week intensive rehearsal period. Not a long time for rehearsals, but when we all stepped into the room, we all had the same epiphany. This is a group (cast and crew) of extremely hard-working people that know exactly how to work together. Currently, we are ahead of the original schedule, and this is whilst having so much fun and laughter that fills the room. We do have an advantage, as the piece was my (Leah’s) dissertation. Thirty minutes were already set. We just had to relearn that. The cast picks up stuff incredibly fast, and because of that, we can keep exploring and building based on the skeleton that’s been created. We’ve been mostly exploring movement within the room. We work mostly with Laban and Meyerhold principles. We are working a lot with collaging, putting together different images and styles.
An interesting thing that I found as the director of the show is how we play with the structure of the fragmented script. The order of scenes is shuffled around. I’ve added some of my writing, which creates new meanings within the play. We are now at the stage of adding in small details, fine-tuning, and just enjoying creating something that’s completely new.
Jake: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
Leah: When the audience enters, they will be enlightened with beautiful opera sung by Yelezaveta Brown.
There will be an element of surprise. We’ve created a world that’s colourful whilst talking about extremely sensitive subjects. You will be transported into a world that’s new, something to keep your eyes on. The staging is dynamic, fast-paced, and straight to the point.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Leah: The subjects within the play are currently outside on display, on the streets, in the protesters’ banners, and mostly in the flags that are hanging from the lampposts. I want to acknowledge, put a spotlight on it, and break it down. Why are politicians today so disengaged from the common people? Why is the polarisation of politics so extreme among the common people? Why are so many protests not even mentioned in the daily news? I want to shed light on all sides, but most importantly, I want to open up the conversation in order to break some of the current polarisation.
Jake: With Voila Festival 2025 just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Leah: I’m most excited to meet and explore new ways of theatre and art being created, the cultures coming together of the migrants in London, the accents and languages being celebrated. Meeting artists, helping each other, and creating lifetime bonds.
Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic, be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Leah: I don’t think it would be a beverage. It would be some kind of hard drug, mixed and imported from different countries to create a fast and hallucinogenic experience.
A reminder, you can catch Flitsmeister as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival in London at The Cockpit Theatre tonight Sunday November 9th from 5pm (55mins). Tickets (£15) are available through the Voila! Theatre Festival Online Box Office.
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Jasmine Silk
