by Joanna Trainor
“If you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.” – Kelly Sue Deconnick
new writing
Jammie Dodger, Vault Festival
by Meredith Jones Russell
Three women – Beth, Deirdre and Marie-Sue – set out to murder their husbands. but things quickly spin out of control when one murder goes right, one goes wrong and one goes very, very wrong.
Call Me Fury, Vault Festival
by Christina Bulford
The Salem witch trials of late 17th century America are infamous. In just a little over a year, more than 200 people were accused in the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut alone. Nineteen of those were found guilty and executed by hanging, but more died in jail or under torture. The death rate could have been higher still but we’ll never know, most court records were destroyed or lost. It remains the deadliest witch hunt in US history.
The Good Landlord, Vault Festival
By Laura Kressly
What would you be willing to give up to pay a mere £800 for a spacious, 2-bedroom flat with a view of St Paul’s from one room and Westminster from another? How about your privacy? Tom and Ed love the place at first sight, but Tom is rather put off by the cameras in every room that a grinning estate agent assures are for security purposes.
Kings of Idle Land, Vault Festival
by Gregory Forrest
Set against the racial tensions of the 2001 Oldham riots, Kings of Idle Land is a Romeo and Juliet reworking, in which tinnies, crisp packets, and roll-ups become a kind of love potion for two nervous young men.
Monkeys Blood, Vault Festival
by Laura Kressly
There’s a world of difference between London and the impoverished estates in Britain’s small towns. Mickey grew up on one in Hartlepool, a place famous for its historic execution of a monkey mistaken for a Frenchman, the more recent fraud case committed by John ‘Canoe Man’ Darwin, and not much else. Some of the town’s citizens maintain its xenophobic, monkey-slaughtering legacy in the form of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests, even though they’ve never met anyone off the estate. Micky escaped these attitudes through a successful career as a children’s entertainer – or so he thought.
Superhoe, Royal Court
by Romy Foster
Nicôle Lecky’s play is an 85-minute, one-woman emotional tornado. She rip-roars across the stage as Sasha Clayton, a typical hell-raising London girl who is 24 and feels like she’s going nowhere with her life. (Hello, did someone say relatable?) Sasha is an aspiring musician who finds herself at a loss and becomes homeless when her ‘perfect’ family kick her out and move to Kent. It’s at this point that she beings to slip into the seemingly enticing world of sex work and the luxuries that come with it.
Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist, Vault Festival
By Meredith Jones Russell
Idiosyncratic, eccentric, fearless and alien-like are just a few of the descriptors a rudimentary Google search of Tilda Swinton will throw up. Based on these, Byron Lane’s Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist has absolutely captured the essence of an icon. It has undoubtedly created a new one, too.
Mancoin, Vault Festival
By Meredith Jones Russell
Mancoin is a dark social satire that pokes fun at the contradictions of ‘wokeness’, and more specifically the supposedly enlightened, woke white male who harbours secret resentment for a life spent checking his own privilege.
Bleach, Vault Festival
By Laura Kressly
Tyler had been living a life familiar to many new Londoners – frustratedly waiting tables whilst hoping for excitement and success that would make his mum proud. Then, a night out in Soho inspired him to give up one kind of service for another, and he’s now loving his work as an escort. The men, the money and the sex make an equation that’s irresistible and thrilling, but not without risk.
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