The team from theatre company Step in Between stop by to chat about their production of Daughters of Spring, opening next month in the Voila! Festival.
The performers are Nasia Dalla, Spyri Papandreou, Astrid Olofsson, Bahar Fehresti, and the director is Cleopatra LSK.
“At its heart lies the myth of Persephone—forever caught between two worlds: the underworld and the earth. When she returns to the surface, nature blooms; when she descends, the world darkens and she is isolated.
Her existence reflects the tension of duality, a life split between belonging and exile, light and shadow.”
Where: The Space
When: 6-8 Nov
Ticket link: https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/events/daughters-of-spring/
Tell me a bit about your show. Where did the idea come from?
Daughters of Spring is inspired by migration journeys and explores adaptation from a female perspective in their late twenties finding their place in a world of constant change.
The story follows two childhood friends. As adults, one moves abroad to pursue her dreams, while the other stays behind, choosing a more conventional path.
The play unfolds between scenes of present-day reality and poetic, surreal memories. Their long-distance friendship begins to strain as emotional vulnerability fades, revealing isolation and inner conflict. Through this distance, both women begin to rediscover themselves.
The piece delves into the challenges of adapting to a new culture, facing language barriers, and living in a state of in-betweenness — caught between worlds, shaping a hybrid identity. The myth of Persephone reminds us that this is not a one-time event, but a recurring emotional cycle — of leaving, returning, and becoming.
The surreal-memory scenes are intentionally abstract, allowing room for interpretation. We believe that each migration story is unique, and within these moments, space — both internal and external — becomes fluid and symbolic.
These dreamlike passages resemble a liminal underworld, where souls drift between connection and disconnection, between the self and the other. The pomegranate, drawn from the Persephone myth, threads through the play as a symbol of truth, vulnerability, and transformation, the bittersweet taste of change.
The idea for Daughters of Spring grew out of our own personal experiences – the challenges and discoveries that came with migrating in our twenties. Entering a new world awakened emotions and questions we had never faced before.
There was a shared sense of urgency, a need to understand not only the world around us but also the shifting landscapes within ourselves. That common ground – the desire to explore identity, belonging, and transformation, and to understand how relationships from the past can shift or fade into something new – became the seed from which this play grew.
Why should audiences choose your show? How would you sell it in one sentence?
Daughters of Spring is a story in which most people can find a piece of themselves. Whether they have experienced migration themselves or their parents or grandparents have shared their stories with them, the themes of change, belonging, and transformation resonate across generations.
As a friend once said, Daughters of Spring tells the story of two friends who seem to choose different lives, yet share the same need for freedom, and self-discovery, and in the end, both, in their own ways, find themselves worn down by the ordinary – searching for meaning beyond the mundane.
What does being part of the Voila! Festival mean to you?
It means a great deal to us to be part of the Voila! Festival – a big gathering and collaboration of artists from all over the world.
This festival recognises not only the creative challenges we face as theatre-makers, but also the personal ones that come with rebuilding our lives in a new country.
The festival’s embrace of different languages, cultures, and accents is deeply meaningful to us. It gives us the confidence to celebrate our uniqueness and to stand proudly in it.
Being given the space to share something that belongs both to our home country and to the country we now live in is an emotional and even therapeutic experience.
Finally, the decision to use English as a shared yet diverse language becomes a metaphor for this journey – carrying many accents but sharing one universal story: the courage to begin again, to belong, and to build a new life.
English exposes the gap between immigrants’ past identities and relationships and their present and future ties to their new country – a struggle to bridge two worlds.
How did you make a start in the industry?
At the heart of this show is Step in Between, a female-led CIC theatre company built on a foundation of diverse talent and a collective love for the stage.
Daughters of Spring is spearheaded by Spyri and Nasia, two London-based artists with roots in Greece. Their journey into the professional theatre world is a recent one, a deliberate step taken after years of developing their voice in semi-amateur productions.
This play is their debut as writers—a bold and crucial step towards carving out their own space in the immense world of London theatre.
We believe that making theatre is an act of deep love and investment, and we are wholeheartedly committed to creating work that speaks authentically from our hearts to yours.
What’s next for the show?
Our immediate focus is to deliver exceptional performances at the Voila! Festival, where we aim to gather valuable audience feedback to refine the production.
Following this debut, our goal is to apply to a circuit of European festivals to broaden our reach and connect with new audiences.
Looking forward, we are committed to expanding our ensemble, further developing the physical theatre aspects of the piece, and fostering new collaborations with migrant artists.
Our ultimate ambition is to tour the show across the European Union and, eventually, worldwide, securing performances at major festivals and renowned theatres.