SURFACING

From neurodiverse production company ASYLUM, comes SURFACING: a new play that combines theatre and technology to present the reality of mental health crises, but in a different light. It follows therapist Luc, as an appointment with potential new “service user” Owen doesn’t go according to plan; overwhelmed by feelings of guilt at letting him down, she […]

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria: Part The First

“By March 2020, here’s hoping every Boris is history.” I’ll be honest, if I didn’t already know of Out of the Forest Theatre’s work, that line on their VAULT Festival page would have been enough to make me want to see their new show – not least the accompanying hashtag #MakeBorisHistory. But having seen and […]

Bin Juice

What’s the strangest job interview you’ve ever had? I bet it doesn’t come close to Belinda’s. Shouted at and belittled from the moment she enters the door, it seems she’s made an instant enemy in interviewer Francine – Marla, on the other hand, is a little more laidback about everything. And so begins Cat Kolubayev’s […]

V&V

Meet Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West, and Mia & Lottie. Two couples who underpin their relationships with written communication; taking place around a century apart, Woolf and Sackville-West are reliant on letters, whereas Mia and Lottie make do with various forms of instant messaging following their pairing on a dating app. These two love stories, […]

Who Cares

A pub closing down may not be the end of the world for most people (after all, even the smallest rural village can house several of them), but for someone like Jamie it’s not as simple as that. Forced into a move up north from London when the lift packed up in his council estate, […]

Something Awful

No, I haven’t replaced a play’s title with a dismissive assessment of its contents… Something Awful is the new piece from writer/director team Tatty Hennessy and Lucy Jane Atkinson, which is inspired by the true crime story of the ‘Slenderman’ and takes its name from the forum on which the story first surfaced. Produced by […]

Lucy Light

Sarah Milton’s latest play, Lucy Light, began life as a single scene in 2015 (the very last one, in fact), going on to receive a professional reading the following year, before its first full production at Theatre N16 in 2017. Milroyd Productions have brought a brand new version of the play to this year’s VAULT Festival, […]

Feed

Guest reviewer: Ellen Casey Feed follows the heavily intertwined stories of a Palestinian woman; her social justice warrior, journalist partner; an obsessed hacker troll; and a YouTube makeup guru looking for a cause. It sounds like an unlikely cast of characters, but they end up whirling tightly around each other, following the ability of the […]

Pufferfish

At first glance, a gay serial killer (who also committed cannibalism and necrophilia) isn’t the most obvious choice for the subject of a 60-minute play. It’s something that should ideally have a degree of sensitivity to it, so as not to sensationalise their actions or make some sort of anti-hero out of them – instead […]

Check-in/Check-out

Guest reviewer: Ellen Casey Check-in/Check-out begins with six people sitting in a loose semi-circle. One of them stands up: “Hi, my name is Christopher, and I’m an alcoholic”. After a little light prompting, we progress around the circle, and after every admission, echo back the traditional second line: “Hi (name inserted)!”. The play progresses in […]