In My Lungs the Ocean Swells, VAULT Festival

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by Fergus Church

It’s a strange thing to hear the sea when you’re 40 odd miles from it, sat on a wooden bench underneath train tracks and footsteps.

A blue tarpaulin. Plastic crates. The stuff of seafarers.

The dampness in the underground air acquires a salty tang.

The high brick walls crag themselves into cliffs embracing a beach.

The sea suddenly feels close.

We are sat around in the half-dark, waiting for something to happen, the tide to come in at dusk.

Then the blueness is unfurled and the waves are lapping at our toes.

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I Don’t Know What to Do, VAULT Festival

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by Isabel Becker

New artistic company Creative Destruction bring forward a pertinent interrogation of the hypocrisies behind the climate crisis movement in their entertaining and moving play. Despite the laziness of the production’s title, which sounds like a draft idea that never quite made it to review (the play is still a work in progress), Zoe Lafferty’s autobiographical story of the 2019 climate protests certainly takes ownership of the theatre as a powerful vehicle for social change.

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Be Longing, VAULT Festival

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by Dora Bodrogi

What if two women could make a baby without any sperm donors?

This is the central question of this play by Lauren Gibson. It sounds like the premise of a Black Mirror episode – and it would make a great one if based on this play – in which we explore the moral and emotional dilemmas of an equally promising and dystopian scientific advancement could cause.

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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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Something Awful, VAULT Festival

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by Evangeline Cullingworth

Soph (Natalya Martin) and Jel (Monica Anne) are pouring over creepypasta horror stories at break time and catch the attention of Ellie (Melissa Parker), the new girl in school who wears her phone in her shirt pocket like a sheet of armor. Their interest become fixations, and what begins with giggles and goosebumps quickly reaches dramatic heights. Something Awful perfectly recreates some of the most memorable times at school, the battles fought over playground loyalties, the fanatic scrutiny of gossip and the stories told in ravishing detail. The breakneck thrill of the internet adds to this nostalgia to create a stomach dropping tragedy.

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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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