VAULT Festival: Waterloo’s Hotbed For New Theatre
By Something CuratedJanuary 25 will see the return of VAULT festival: a six-week underground celebration of entertainment, taking place beneath Waterloo station, and expanding, for the first time in the event’s history, to ground-level locations within the local area. This year’s programme includes themed club nights, a film festival, circus, cabaret, comedy, workshops and theatre – with a specifically curated selection of “sci-fi and space shows designed to make you smile, and think about where we are all headed”.
Run by Heritage Arts Company, the event seeks to be “a festival for the people”. “We wanted to see if we could create a festival that looks after its artists, audiences and its staff as fairly as possible,” explains creative director Mat Burt. The company wishes to combat a system of “high rent prices, punitive box-office splits for artists and high ticket prices for consumers”. Making the event accessible, both to creatives and spectators, is seen as an essential part of the ethos. “What we want to do is give a home to those who are just starting out, or who have wild and risky ideas, as much as those artists who are already successful, or who have commercially viable work. We want both to sit side-by-side.” Focussing on this inclusivity, Heritage Arts Company runs an open-application, allowing them to put together a “deliberately broad” programme which covers a diverse range of work, from improvised comedy to feature-length international movies making their London premiers, including the Canadian Kidnap Town, the Swiss Valley of Salt and the Spanish/Portuguese Towards the Wind.
There are a selection of immersive events, including The Guild of Misrule’s The Great Gatsby, a production featuring creatives from Secret Cinema, Les Enfants Terribles, Belt Up Theatre and The Flanagan Collective; and The ‘Neath, “a members club at the end of time and at a cross section of worlds” a collaboration between Specifiq and Dean Rodgers, the man behind HEIST, Time Run and the live theatre experience of The Crystal Maze. Another highlight includes the Wild West comedy about fiscal accountability, The Texas Taxman, by Luke Courtier, the creator of hit musical comedy Lunch. Courtier will also take part in the latest project by Camilla Whitehill, writer of previous critical successes Where do the Little Birds Go? and Mr. Incredible – a funeral for the long-dead titled On the Crest of a Wave, which is to feature “all kinds of utter nonsense, fun, honesty and snacks.” Superbolt Theatre will be returning to the venue with a new production, Mars Actually, and their award-winning Jurassic Park (now named Dinosaur Park), a show which sold out its Edinburgh Fringe run and has toured around the world.
The VAULT festival will offer audiences the chance to see critically acclaimed work, and discover creatives at the start of a prosperous career: notably, the shows of Courtier, Whitehill and Superbolt Theatre premiered at this event. “Katie Bonna and Richard Marsh went on to win a Fringe First for Dirty Great Love Story and have met lots of success,” explains Burt, as he describes other VAULT success stories. “Yve Blake did her first ever UK show here and now, I believe, is writing a musical with Rebel Wilson. Our headline film from our Film Festival last year, Over My Dead Body!, by James King and James Carney, went on to both Cannes and the LA Shorts Festival.” Writer Isley Lynn developed Skin a Cat for the festival, a play which went on to become a massive critical success. Acclaimed comedians Sara Pascoe and Luisa Omielan were both hosted by the Vaults in 2014. Though Burt claims that the festival is only curated by “necessity”, it is evident that him and his team have repeatedly created a showcase for some of the most promising entertainers to be found in London, the UK, and beyond.
Words by Laura Gilbert