Isabel Quiroz & Nicollah Sekete on XQUENDA at The Cockpit Theatre
After the success of our 2025 Camden Fringe Interviews, we thought it only right to attempt a repeat for 2026. So throughout July we’ll be publishing new interviews each day to give a taste of what to expect from London’s best fringe theatre festival. The festival starts Monday 3 August this year, so we may give ourselves a couple of days off inbetween the end of the interviews and the first shows… then again, we might not.
You can find out more about Camden Fringe, along with details of every show playing this August here. You can also find all of this year’s interviews as they are published here.
How do you fight back when the systems built to protect you choose instead to ignore you? For Xquenda, a young indigenous woman from rural Oaxaca, Mexico, the answer lies in the only weapons she has left: her voice, her words, and her poems.
Coming to The Cockpit Theatre this August for Camden Fringe, XQUENDA is a fierce, magical, and deeply moving production from Teatro Glam&Roll. Rooted in real letters written as a protest following the murder and disappearance of a young woman’s best friend, the play blends physical theatre, live Latin American rhythms, and ancestral poetry to address a devastating global reality.
We caught up with writer-director Isabel Quiroz and performer Nicollah Sekete to talk about bringing this powerful Mexican story to London, discovering a character’s “inner fire,” and how a souvenir clay ocarina became the literal voice of a jaguar on stage.
If you had to describe the vibe of XQUENDA in just one sentence, what would it be and how does it manifest on stage?
XQUENDA is a poetic and musical journey based on letters written as a protest by a young indigenous woman from rural Oaxaca, México, and her search for justice after the murder and disappearance of her best friend. On stage, this manifests as something fiery, colourful, and magical, featuring live music, Latin American rhythms, poetry, ancestry, and a sacred performance space created entirely in a circle of soil and paper.
Why is 2026 the crucial time for a global audience to experience this story?
We live in a world where women are still fighting daily for their basic rights. This is a story that, although it comes from a very specific indigenous background, tragically repeats itself all over the world: a woman is silenced simply for demanding justice.
Xquenda is a young woman who fights. After being ignored by the authorities due to her economic status, she fights with the only powerful tools she possesses: her voice, her words, and her poems. This is where her fire relies, and for us, this is her power and the reason why we wanted to communicate this story today.
Nicollah, what initially drew you to XQUENDA and this specific role?
While I was doing my MA in Acting, I worked with Isabel while she was doing her MA in Theatre Directing. When this project was proposed, I knew I was going to have a great time working with her to create it. The story itself felt so incredibly important, and even nowadays, it carries a vital, urgent message. We’ve put this show on multiple times, and the character has evolved significantly over the runs. It has been a beautiful challenge, but a highly rewarding one, as each time we return to it, I uncover a completely new layer to the role.
Fringe festivals require keeping set designs as minimalist as possible. How have you adapted your staging?
We create our entire world in a circle of soil and paper, that is it! It’s organic, symbolic, and allows us to evoke the dry earth of Oaxaca and the fragile nature of the letters Xquenda writes.
If you had to describe your show as a color, what would it be?
Purple, because that’s the colour we use on stage for the magical, ancestral moments of the story. Or Golden Yellow, because it reminds us of the presence of the lead character’s spirit animal, the Jaguar.
What is the weirdest or most unconventional prop used in the show, and how did it join the production?
We have an “ocarina” (a traditional clay wind instrument) that perfectly reproduces the roar of a Jaguar. It was originally just a travel souvenir brought back from Mexico. We brought it into the rehearsal room while we were trying to find a high-quality audio recording of a jaguar online. As soon as we played it live, it just made complete sense to use it. It instantly became one of the most meaningful, visceral props in the show.
If the play is a love letter to a specific group of people, who is it for?
As the show is inspired by true events and real people who have experienced forced disappearances and feminicides, our show is a love letter to those who are missing, and to those who suffer while tirelessly searching for their beloved ones.
What is the most valuable piece of creative advice you’ve kept close during your career?
Isabel: “Every person’s story is worth being listened to.” My plays always come from real people I see on the streets, or news stories that get me deeply upset and connect back to my background. The characters I write about are usually silenced voices, and Xquenda is a prime example. What attracted me to creating her, beyond the tragedy she faces, is the fire within her that made her go on and fight for justice every single day. That is something I deeply admire from the real-life people who inspired this story.
What is next on the horizon for XQUENDA after the Camden Fringe?
We have actually just been accepted to perform at two different theatre festivals this coming October! We are beyond excited to have the opportunity to share this vital story with even more audiences.
Many thanks to Isabel and Nicollah for chatting with us. Xquenda plays at The Cockpit on Saturday 8 August for Camden Fringe.
