When: 25th January – 5th March 2017
Where: The Vaults, Network Theatre, and Morley College, London
£: Ticket prices vary, depending on the event
What is it?
VAULT Festival returns from 25th January to 5th March, to its home beneath Waterloo Station and, for the first time, at satellite two venues, Network Theatre and Morley College.
This year’s programme features a myriad of shows exploring many themes, new bars and food offerings, plus an array of late night parties to attend.
For all six weeks at VAULT, The Great Gatsby presented by The Guild Of Misrule, in association with The Immersive Ensemble and Perrier Jouët, will be performed across multiple spaces; ensuring every audience has a unique experience. Following on from Jurassic Park, their hit 2016 comedy, Superbolt Theatre return to the festival with Mars Actually; one of many space and sci-fi-themed events at this year’s festival.
In collaboration with UCL Institute of Neurology, Thought To Flesh explores motor neuron disease (MND) in a spoken word, multi-media and movement interpretation. Heading up a wide circus programme, the contemporary spectacular Becoming Shades transfers from a sell-out run at Jackson’s Lane.
Every week, the VAULT Film Festival will premier exciting shorts and features, including dark_net staring Johnny Vegas, and Love Comes Later, a London premiere staring Sarita Choudhury (Homeland).
Guests will be able to dance the night away every weekend, at huge themed parties including a Valentine’s Ball, a Mardi Gras party, and Jay Gatsby’s own party weekend.
Festival food will come in the form of Balkano, a kitchen inspired by chef Martin H Shaw’s exploration of Eastern Europe. Shaw will offer up dishes including Hungary Hot Potato and Smoky Serb Salsa. Two new themed bars will provide ample space to enjoy craft beers and cocktails. Entry to the festival’s bars will be free, so guests are welcome to simply enjoy the ambience.
The Neath, a subterranean members bar for the supernatural, will offer up chances to interact with denizens from some of London’s finest and most daring immersive theatre companies.
Camilla Whitehill returns to VAULT with On The Crest of a Wave, taking inspiration from her own family history. Whitehill explores the death of her Grandmother, male and generational grief, repression and trauma in working class families.
A Hundred Different Words For Love is a story-telling show with music and linguistic philosophy from the heart-broken James Rowland. The Long Trick is a new play about one man’s private protest against gentrification, set against the backdrop of Cornwall’s many ‘second homes’.
Summer Nights in Space is a one-act musical that follows an astronaut responding to an attractive Astro-nette distress call, with a reluctant crew in tow. A heartfelt look at the meaning of modern life – in space.
Award-winning writer Sadie Hastler’s Fran & Leni is a tale of The Rips, girls with guitars bored of playing nice. Luke Courtier transports the audience to the wild west of the mid-eighteenth century, for a journey both dangerous and hilarious, with The Texas Tax Man. Follow two cowboys who have forgotten to file their tax return, much to their peril.
Frontal Lobotomy sees bold, witty, and surreal, burlesque maverick Jeu Jeu la Foille fuse original beat poetry with the tormented lullabies of Tom Waits; punctuated with scientific accounts of perhaps the biggest error of judgment in medical history – the transorbital lobotomy.
Y Llygrgell/The Library Suicides is an offbeat film thriller set in the National Library of Wales. Cast members include Catrin Stewart (Stella, Dr Who), Dyfan Dwfor (Pride, Y Gwyll/Hinterland) and Sharon Morgan (Resistance, Torchwood).
More info: VAULTFestival.com