Quick introduction to your production, venue and performance times.

Mana, mitera, manoula, mama is a visual, physical piece created between London, Fermanagh, and Thessaloniki, about a mother and daughter and the strange little world they’ve built together. A world that makes perfect sense to them. To everyone else? Perhaps not. The production will have its official premiere at Theatro Technis in Camden, on 9 and 10 November at 9pm, as part of Voila! Festival 2026. Although the piece is performed in Greek, you don’t need to understand the language to engage with it. Words are used sparingly, more as sounds than as a way of explaining things. Meaning comes from how something is said, how the characters behave, the tension between them, and the images and rhythms we create on stage. That’s our main language.

What inspired you to start making or performing theatre?

Creating something from nothing, collaborating with others, making the impossible possible. That’s what gives me a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment. Theatre is an environment that generously provides the opportunity to do all of the above. Frankly, I haven’t really thought this through. I suppose I could devise a great explanation as to why I make theatre or why I continue to make it, but I don’t think it would be entirely accurate. What I do know, though, is what I’m like when I spend long periods away from that making process. Not what. you’d call the best version of myself.

Have you taken this production anywhere before? How was it received by the audience?

Voila! Festival will be the official premiere of the production, but we did an informal showcase in Greece at the end of our R&D phase. We deliberately invited people from different walks of life, most of whom had never seen this kind of theatre before. We only gave them a brief introduction, explaining that meaning comes mainly through images, sound and physicality rather than words. Oh, you should’ve seen their faces! The awkward silence, followed by a “hmm” full of judgement and pity. Haha! But after the showcase, things changed. People stayed, asked some incredibly sophisticated and challenging questions and came up with interpretations that hadn’t even crossed our minds. Everyone seemed to find something different in it. That was a big win for us.

Why did you choose to perform at the Voila Festival?

Voila! has already played a big part in our journey at TOPBRA. We presented our first production, 333, at the festival last year, and it gave us the chance to share our work, meet other artists, and learn a great deal along the way. Coming back with our second production feels like a natural next step. We’re still independent artists figuring things out, and opportunities like this really matter to our development. We love the festival’s openness to different cultures, languages, and ways of making theatre. It’s a place where we feel we belong, and we’re very happy to be back!

Has there been anyone in your life who has inspired you to work in the theatre?

Not exactly inspired, but someone definitely planted the seed. Theatre came into my life completely by accident. I’d just finished high school and was working at a bar in Thessaloniki, where I became friends with a waitress who was in her second year of drama school. At the time, I’d just moved from my tiny village to the big city and was looking for adventures. She suggested I audition for a drama school that was offering a limited number of first-year scholarships. So I did. I got the spot and sadly liked it far too much. She was very influential to me at the time. I often wish she’d introduced me to something else. Investing, for instance.

How long have you been working on this particular production?

Since last March. I’ve known Maria, who plays the daughter, since we were in drama school together in Thessaloniki. I met Mary, who plays the mother, last March in a play Maria directed, and I was immediately drawn to their chemistry. I first asked them if they’d like to make something together and only later told them what I had in mind. I couldn’t do it the other way around and risk them saying no. I had to trap them first. They also happen to look alike, and I’ve always wanted to make something about a mother and daughter. I find that relationship rather juicy. So when the Voila! applications opened, the timing seemed perfect.

Do you have anything that you are planning on seeing while you are at the Voila Festival?

Definitely! KOKONA at the Playground Theatre and User Manual for a Broken Machine at Theatro Technis immediately caught my attention. I loved their premises, and I feel like there’s a lot I can learn from how they approach complex topics and tell stories without relying so much on spoken language. That’s our thing lately, I guess. And I absolutely must see The King is Pregnant. Read the synopsis. I mean, how could I miss that?

What would you like audiences to take away from your production?

I don’t know. Perhaps a reminder that feelings don’t just disappear. Sadly, we can’t just bury them and replace them with whatever we believe is the right thing to feel. Life then becomes a script. I suppose we chose an extreme environment to explore the cost of this ‘performance’ – the cost of the heart and brain being completely disconnected. What a terrible way to spend your time on this planet, with consequences extending way beyond the ‘here and now’.

 

Katerina Topali

Co-founder of TOPBRA productions

Creator & Director of Mana, mitera, manoula, mama

https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/events/mana-mitera-manoula-mama/