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One Week Until VAULT Festival
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This time next week sees the opening of VAULT Festival 2023. It's hard to believe it's been three years since this festival set underneath Waterloo Station closed its doors as the lockdown started. Both 2021 and 2022 editions were cancelled, but it's finally back. We are confident it's going to be bigger and better than ever.
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With over 500 shows between 24 January and 19 March, it's going to be a near impossible task to decide what you might want to see. So we thought we'd lend a helping hand and highlight a few shows that have caught our attention, along with those we've been lucky enough to catch up with for an interview or had on our weekly podcast.
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In fact, with so much happening, this edition of our newsletter is soley for the shows in the first couple of weeks, we'll be publishing more newsletters to tell you about what is coming in future weeks as well, and tell you about the shows we've seen in the opening week or two.
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In Clay: A New Musical
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Based on a true story, IN CLAY is a new one-woman musical told from a small kitchen in the suburbs of Paris in the late 1930s. Directed by Grace Taylor (SIX Associate Director), IN CLAY combines jazz manouche with contemporary musical theatre in a story of near misses, unfulfilled potential, and the joy of creating art.
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Plays each day at 6.35pm between 24 and 28 January (except 28 when the show is at 6.05pm). Full details and bookings here.
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Science Adventures: The Power Pickle
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Join Coppice Theatre for Science Adventures: The Power Pickle!
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Disaster! Professor McGuffin’s Sub-Nuclear Optical Transmitter (SNOT) has a catastrophic malfunction. The ACES are here with a collection of science-themed stories to figure out an answer. Could wind, water, magma or even 27 bananas power the SNOT? Find out in this fun and educational storytelling show.
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Plays weekends only between 28 January and 12 February, full dates and bookings here.
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A Society
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Every man, deep down, knows he's a worthless piece of shit: a play where the unconventional partnership of Virginia Woolf and Valerie Solanas dream of a world without patriarchy.
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Plays daily between 31 January and 5 February, start times vary between 7.45pm or 8.15pm over the run, plus a 2.30pm matinee on 5 February. Check website here for times for daily start times.
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St Doctors Hospital
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St Doctor’s Hospital is the smash-hit, critically acclaimed laugh out loud improvised comedy inspired by your favourite medical dramas. No procedure is too convoluted, no disease is too made-up, and no relationship saga is too inappropriate for the operating theatre. 50cc of lols straight to the funny bone, STAT!
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You can read our 4 star review of St Doctors Hospital from last March here.
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Plays 15 to 18 February at 7.50pm, except 18 February when the show starts at 5.55pm. Full details and bookings can be found here.
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VAULT Festival Podcasts
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We have had some great guests on our podcast talking about their shows. We try to select guests whose shows really have grabbed our attention, so we like to think they are ones you might be interested in as well.
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Eleanor Hill discusses the show, why she is telling people to come with phones prepared, why her trigger warnings are longer than War and Peace, and whether you can ever overshare on stage.
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We find out more about the show and why it will be different every performance. Plus we discuss how you go about devising what is very much an improv show, how you deal with over eager audience members, and whether the venue of a shipping container has an effect on how the show performs.
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All In Good Time promises us a show about our different perspectives on time, with a dash of ADHD time travel, dodo’s, disco balls and no doubt a whole lot more. We have a feeling it could be as weird and wonderful as their last show!
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VAULT Festival Interviews
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And because we limit ourselves to one podcast a week, we love inviting other guests to do written interviews with us. Since the start of the year we've been busy chatting to a host of creatives as they prepare their shows ready for the VAULT Festival. You can read the full interviews over on our website, where you'll also find links to book those tickets.
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We also have a lot more interviews on their way so do keep an eye on our site to stay up to date. We've tried to pick shows that cover the sheer breath on offer at this year's festival, so we reckon there is something for everyone here.
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For a Brief Moment and Never Again Since
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"I came across a podcast by a woman whose husband was in prison. Throughout the podcast she mentioned again and again the stigma and backlash she’d been facing since her husband’s arrest."
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"Expect stomach-churning sound design, a heart-felt reimagining of absurdist theatre and the want to have a shower afterwards."
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Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi?
(Who Took My Malay Away?)
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28 & 29 January and 4 & 5 February
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"It’s about his sense of self, of belonging and his place in this world and whether it matters or not if people allow him the space. Or if he should not wait for that space and instead fight for that space and own it."
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"I very much wanted to put an authentically represented working-class family at the centre of a play. There’s not enough of them, and it’s what I love to see so why not. And I was very pissed off at seeing working-class stories written by people who don’t have lived experience, just looking to tick a box."
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"Throughout the course of the show the audience and I embark on a quest for climax; uncovering the myths and filling the gaps in knowledge that get in the way of pleasurable sex."
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Around The World With Nellie Bly
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28 & 29 January and 4 & 5 February
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"She was a real person! Nellie Bly was a journalist, living in New York in the late 1800s. Nowadays we’d call her an investigative journalist – she wrote all sorts of incredible stories, often putting herself in harm’s way to do so."
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"On the Line is a Gen-Y play. It’s fast-paced with twists and turns, wit, deep themes, banter and emotion, and all told in contemporary London slang. It’s immediate and honest."
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We'll be back soon with our second VAULT Festival newsletter. Next time we'll have some reviews to tell you about as well from the first week of the festival. In the meantime, if you do grab tickets for any of the shows, why not tell us about it over on our social media channels, links to which are below.
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Until next time, thanks for reading and we hope we've got you interested in a show or two.
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