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. I have caught up with Aishwarya Gaikwad and Carly Hendricks ahead of her play Women Over 30 Don’t Matter which will be performing at The Space Theatre on 6th November at 7pm and 16th November at 6pm.
Is the Voila Theatre Festival your production’s debut performance? Yes, and we’re both thrilled to debut ‘Women Over 30 Don’t Matter’ with Voila. As international artists living in London, it’s so valuable to us to have space where our voices are supported and celebrated. We’ve also found participating in Voila to be a great opportunity to collaborate with a diverse pool of creatives from all over the world, as well as for emerging artists to build their network.
What’s your favourite part of the Theatre industry?
The feeling of performing in front of an audience is unlike anything else! It’s like a roller coaster, and it changes with every performance. Feeling that immediate connection with people is so powerful, not just with the audience but with your fellow artists. It’s like a trust fall, in a way.
What one piece of advice would you pass onto new Theatre students? Building a theatre career is a marathon, not a sprint. Prepare accordingly.
Where do you draw your inspiration from as a creative?
There’s so much going on in the world, and it creates this need for us to speak our minds. The things that keep us up at night are the same things that fuel our storytelling. It’s important to us to find the silver lining, and to tell stories that are relevant to a wider audience and not just theatre-makers.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Before founding Cherry and Guava, we collaborated on ‘Strange Orbits’, a dramatic sci-fi play written by Carly and directed by Aishwarya. This was the first time we explored fringe theatre in the UK, and we learned so much about how to produce theatre. It was such a powerful and personal piece, and we definitely both caught the theatre-making bug! Seeing how well audiences received the piece was so humbling and inspiring, and it made us even more excited to come up with new writing to share with as many people as possible.
Are you planning on taking your production to another industry festival in the future?
We’d love to bring it to Brighton Fringe next year, if we can secure the funding we need. Regardless, we hope to continue building on it and maybe bring it to EdFringe in the future.
Women Over 30 Don’t Matter will be performing as part of Voila! Theatre Festival at The Space Theatre on 6th November at 7pm and 16th November at 6pm. For more information about the show and to purchase tickets, visit
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
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