Promises a lot, but the audience is never rewarded with a big enough payoff. I left feeling hoodwinked rather than dazzled.

A one-woman comedy show that aims at presenting love as a chemical reaction. Propelled by the performer's charisma, it requires more polishing to make a lasting impression.

Pros: Powerful and surreal Cons: Lacked a bit of polish and the DJ´s role could have been clearer It is 5 am, and the morning after an S & M party. Joy’s lover has disappeared, so she returns to the scene of the crime to piece together her feelings. In this one woman play, each moment of dialogue is filled with such a level of drama its surreality is enormous. From talking, throughout, to a bright, white, male blow up doll, ...

Pros: The topic is compelling and presented from an original and timely perspective. Cons: The character of Elliott is underwritten. How would we react if we discovered that our partner of four years was undergoing gender reassignment? Hopefully, many of us would be cool with it, offering support and appreciating the courage of letting one’s true nature flourish. Some others, though, might feel cheated and even try to make the whole thing about themselves. The latter case applies to Elliott (Elena Voce), whom ...

Pros: Silly family fun with a creative set, musical numbers and lots of laughs. Cons: The ending runs out of steam and may lose the interest of younger audience members. FacePlant Theatre have put a serious issue at the centre of a gloriously silly hour-long piece of theatre aimed at adults and children of all ages. Our unlikely hero is 17-year-old Billy, whose cantankerous love-interest has set him the seemingly impossible task of retrieving 7000 rubber ducks which are adrift ...

Pros: Pacy thriller uses simple but effective tactics to create a cinematic experience. Cons: A bit tedious in parts, but the climax rescues it. Christopher Adams brings his take on London’s chemsex culture to the vaults beneath Waterloo station. When protagonist Anthony (Ciaran Ownes) discovers that his one-night stand has been found dead on Hampstead Heath, he rejects the idea that the young man is just another casualty of the culture’s terrifying, drug-infused underbelly. Anthony suspects something more sinister is ...

An admirably ambitious experiment in reimagining Shakespeare that mostly misses the mark.

An entertaining and funny show about the life of a striptease artist.

Laurane Marchive of Chivaree Circus shares how the company brought its immersive, all-female production of 'Becoming Shades' to the Vault Festival.

Pros: The set and the performance of Carolina Main as Anna-Jacoby. Cons: At times it dragged a bit and needed to be about 15 minutes shorter. Written in 1897, H G Wells’ vision of constantly being watched resonates still, especially when one has walked to The Vaults past the many CCTV cameras in and around Waterloo Station. This may well have been the original story about an object taking over someone’s personality, but as the concept has been used many times since it is not as novel as ...