VAULT Festival returns for the 6th year and is much bigger. We really enjoy the atmosphere, the variety of the shows and the whole experience of walking down Leak Street and enter this underground art world.
The programme as per previous years has options for everyone, presenting a variety of theatre, comedy, film and late parties. With less than a week to go we tried to pick some shows that we would like to see, or have seen in the past and would definitely recommend.
If you haven't seen it already at another festival, catch Labels on Week 1. Also on Week 1 & 2 don't miss the one and only Red Bastard: Lie With Me and Evros | The Crossing River, a physical theatre piece that dives into the refugee crisis. For Week 3 check out The Bear Pack with Steen Raskopoulos and Carlo Ritchie, Cosmic Clown with Omar Ibrahim, Mission Abort by Therese Ramstedt, and JOY by All Good Artists are Dead theatre company.
You can kick off Week 4 with The Vagina Dialogues, continue with Richard Soames: Let's Make A Movie (Work in Progress) and dance with Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho. Our friend and PR specialist Holly Casey (Paper Rose PR) is making her debut at the festival with a dark and weird play Francis Farmer: Zombie Movie Star.
For Week 5 we would recommend checking out Still We Dream... a dance piece that animates non-traditional performance spaces, Amy Conway's Super Awesome World, an interactive play that explores depression through 90's video games, SPARKS a play about grief, loss, worth, love and fantasy, and CAUSE a story about change.
Week 6 and the festival is still on full speed. Don't miss Ian Done a Bad Thing and Place to Be if you are after theatre. For laughs and giggles check out Jordan Brookes and Dan Antopolski (Work in Progress) and Sarah Keyworth: Dark Horse (Work In Progress).
I am particularly excited for Week 7 as there are a lot of new shows I am looking forward to see. Foreign Body, a debut solo show by Imogen Butler-Cole about hope and healing after sexual assault. People Who Need People by the award winning and critically acclaimed company Out of Spite Theatre, and BOOTS a play about sex, abuse and drugs. Finally the super talented team behind RedBellyBlack Theatre Company returns with OK Bye. A new performance, that combines physical theatre and dynamic storytelling, and starts a dialogue of what it means to part ways.
Last but not least make sure you see Caravan on Week 8. 'Conveyed through evocative jazz & hip hop movement accompanied by a live band, Caravan is an intimate 360-degree experience that explores social issues such as immigration, depression & alcohol misuse'.