by Meredith Jones Russell
On the eve of her 22nd birthday, Kerry Frampton got pregnant, catapulting her into the life of a young mum. Fast forward 22 years later, and daughter Matilda is wondering how on earth how her mum did it.
Waterloo Vaults
On Arriving, VAULT Festival
by Emma Lamond
This play is a confronting and heartbreaking window into the human resilience, strength and determination of people caught up in conflict, and forced to migrate and seek refuge in another country.
What the Dolls Saw, VAULT Festival
by Laura Kressly
A master doll-maker has died, leaving behind a fractious and fragmented family. His widow is a nostalgic former actor, his eldest daughter Christine is a lesbian true-crime podcaster from his first marriage, middle daughter Zara is a petty criminal living in the US, and his youngest, Meg, is a children’s book author. As they gather for the funeral, Christine reminds them of their long-missing Aunt Lily, mum’s twin. Now that their tyrannical father is dead, it’s the perfect time to get to the bottom of her disappearance.
The Indecent Musings of Miss Doncaster 2007, VAULT Festival
by Isabel Becker
EY UP!
Miss Donny of Doncaster is back after her 2007 debut, and this performance will absolutely blow your bloody socks off. [Note: if you didn’t read that sentence in a stinking Yorkshire accent then you need to go and spend some time in that smashing end of the country].
When the Sea Swallows Us Whole, VAULT Festival
by Dora Bodrogi
Climate, sexuality, religion, growing up, friendship, abandonment, and cats come together in the dystopian yet quirky play. Natasha Collie invites us to a small seaside town on the verge of disappearing. As the coast erodes further and further, the waves and the merciless demolition authorities threaten the community’s homes. Coming of age in a place that is succumbing piece by piece to the sea is a strange experience.
LGBTQFA, VAULT Festival
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.
In My Lungs the Ocean Swells, VAULT Festival
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.
I Don’t Know What to Do, VAULT Festival
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.
Be Longing, VAULT Festival
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.
Gobby, VAULT Festival
by Zahid Fayyaz
Fresh from a well-received run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this is the story of two years of change in one woman’s life, written and performed by actor Jodie Irvine. It’s told through the lens of five parties within that time period.
The Play's The Thing UK 