music

Big Bones, VAULT Festival

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By Becky Lennon

‘’Everything is Big at the big top! Its Big, it’s whopping, the fun’s never stopping!’’ 

Nora, a clumsy girl with no gang of friends, discovers that she is the long lost great-great-great-granddaughter of Big Bones, the owner of the Big Bones Big Top Circus!  We follow her journey to the big top where she meets various characters, such as Jim Membership the strong man. Nora is also met with the news that the Big Top has a curse, which prevents audiences seeing the show. Will Nora be able to reverse the curse and reconnect audiences with the circus? 

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LGBTQFA, VAULT Festival

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by Amber Pathak

With nothing but a few chairs and the players’ brilliant minds, LGBTQFA keeps your sides hurting for days afterwards. Featuring the amazing, musical comedy sketch-duo Shelf, this is a two-show-in-one treat. It’s difficult to find a comedy show exposing serious issues without feeling forced, yet this is exactly what the evening provides – a hilariously woke opener from Shelf with some killer tunes, followed by a fully-improvised show by the Free Association.

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Head of State, VAULT Festival

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By Zahid Fayyaz

Given the state of our current world leaders, this play is certainly a timely one to put on. It follows Mo, the newly elected Head of State of Nechora – a country so tiny, it’s literally not even on the map. Due to the seemingly insignificant size of his country, the congratulatory phone calls from the world leaders turn into impromptu therapy sessions, and Mo is suddenly privy to the thoughts and secrets of some of the world’s most powerful people. He hopes he can use this access to help his country, but things start going wrong.

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Connie Wookey: Denied, VAULT Festival

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by Steph J. Watkins

Connie Wookey: Denied is just one of the musically comedic, one-woman-shows on offer this year at VAULT Festival, and it certainly packs a punch. Wookey tells us of her times in America, travelling in Canada and contemplating life in what could have been her last moments on earth. We follow her various experiences as a struggling actor, told through fabulously-written parodies to popular songs and quick-witted humour.

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Cassie and the Lights, VAULT Festival

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by Becky Lennon

This story, based on real-life events, follows the lives of three sisters – Cassie (Alex Brain), Tin (Michaela Murphy) and Kit (Emily McGlynn) – after their mother disappears at a bowling alley. Although the piece focuses on the teenage perspective of the British care system, it also acknowledges the differences within individual families, the value of these differences, and invites us to ask, what makes a family?

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Sound Cistem, VAULT Festival

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by Grace Bouchard

Heart-thumping music blaring, performers Ayden Brouwers and Lizzie Morris take the stage. As they dance towards each other, vibrant disco lights hitting their slow moving bodies, they ask “How do we look?” and “How do you look?”. It is at this point that we realise why we are here. We are here to look, and to observe.  Simply through the act of being in the room with them, I am complicit in demonstrating the impact the cis gaze has on transgender bodies.

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Catch of the Day, VAULT Festival

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by Evangeline Cullingworth

Yes, this is my first time in Dingle – no, I’ve not been out on the peninsula yet and yes, I’ll make sure to say hello to Fungie. The next thing I know we’re splitting a bag of Taytos with the row in front and cheering along to a traditional song that has risen up. And the play hasn’t even started yet.

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Tarot, VAULT Festival

 

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By Matthew McGregor-Morales

“We’re going to go with intuition”, Ruby Wednesday tells a lady from Chiswick, as ambience-maestros Yoshi peel out the start of a haunting, rhythmic dive into minor keys and mayhem. Returning to VAULT Festival after a break-out 2019 run, The Feathers of Daedalus have taken Tarot up a notch, blending their signature circus and dance performances with audience readings and a soul funk soundtrack with climaxes a-plenty.

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This Bitch Can Heal, VAULT Festival

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By Evangeline Cullingworth

Jack is hurtling forwards, desperately striving to fix mistakes from their childhood, arguments with their girlfriend, and now climate change. This movement needs them, and they need an excuse to keep moving. We meet Jack in the middle of the London Rebellion, the 10 days of peaceful civil disobedience organised by Extinction Rebellion in April last year. They jump onto their bicycle late at night and begin to hurtle forward, away from the scrutiny they’re under at home.

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Sold, VAULT Festival

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by Laura Kressly

In 1831, Mary Prince’s autobiography was the first book published in the UK about a Black woman. Her straightforward, emotive prose shares her lived experience of being an enslaved woman in the West Indies and England in great detail, including numerous accounts of abuse. This two-woman show embraces it all, packing this story of family separation, numerous masters, and a quest for freedom into an hour. Dance, music and ritual are embedded into the dramaturgy, too – this is a dense show, but one telling an important story that’s exquisitely performed.

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