Theatre

Headlining VAULT Festival, the immersive folk opera Counting Sheep returns to the UK for the first time since its award-winning run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. A deeply personal retelling of the revolution in Ukraine, the production is an explosive stage experience set to the sounds of Canada’s beloved guerilla-folk party-punk band, The Lemon Bucket Orkestra. With interactive staging where audience members are invited to be part of the revolution, Counting Sheep is a striking and visceral exploration of the politics of revolution.

Also running for a full eight weeks, the makers of Counting Sheep present the London premiere of Balaklava Blues - an ethno-bass live set, coupled with archive footage, iconic Soviet cartoons, and the polyphonic blues of the Ukrainian plains.

New Diorama Theatre joins forces with VAULT Festival to showcase some of the UK’s most exciting ensemble work. Staging some of their recent Edinburgh hits, the NDT/VAULT Festival Takeover includes A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad), a hilarious yet gut-wrenching story about depression from Olivier award-winning playwright Jon Brittain, Kill the Beast’s Director’s Cut, an achingly funny comedy staged on the set of a 1970s horror movie; and, winner of a Stage Edinburgh Award, sell-out show Queens of Sheba - a funny, poetic and unflinching look at misogynoir. The season culminates with The Faction reviving their electrifying production of The Talented Mr. Ripley, breathing new life into Patricia Highsmith’s extraordinary psychological thriller about an infamous and deadly conman.

Representing the highest calibre of work from the Fringe, VAULT Festival will host the winner of the Summerhall Award, The Myth of the Singular Moment, and Pleasance Award winner, Ladykiller.

Born in part out of co-creator Jim Harbourne’s experience with Huntington’s Disease, The Myth of Page the Singular Moment is scored by a contemporary folk soundtrack and tells of the choices we make and those we don’t as multiple realities coincide and diverge. Ladykiller is a blood-soaked jet-black comedy offering the feminist case for female psychopaths: it's not what it looks like, really, it's not - it was self-defence and, anyway, the woman was asking for it.

And there’s more for true crime fans as the macabre finds a spine-chilling home in The Vaults’ underground tunnels. Based on the 2010 case, Kompromat follows the final hours of the GCHQ agent murdered and folded into a sports bag. Both assassin and victim find and lose their chance to escape in this tense thriller. Pufferfish is based on the real and astonishing story of Jeffrey Dahmer who took the lives of 17 young men in the 1980s. It digs through the homophobia of the initial reporting of the case and attempts to uncover the links between fear and desire, beauty and horror.

Other theatrical highlights include Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist with Instagram and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Tom Lenk as Tilda Swinton, who comes to the rescue of a depressed gay man. Physical theatre ensemble The PappyShow present a cycle of plays in an exciting venue takeover including: Boys, a celebration of manhood with the things about boys you never get to see; Girls which explores the complex yet joyous stories of women of all ages; and Care, a touching tribute to the NHS. Orlando from Lucy Roslyn and Josh Roche is the story of Virginia Woolf’s character through the sixties, the AIDs crisis and the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando; it interrogates society's insistence on boxing up identities. Irish company MALAPROP’s Jericho considers the world we live in and explores wrestling, journalism and confusing entertainment and politics. Katie & Pip is about the relationship between Katie, a Type 1 Diabetic teenager, and Pip, her border collie, trained to save her life on a daily basis. Making an invisible disability visible, it celebrates living life to the full, with help from an actual dog in performance.

Following the recent trend of reclaiming Herstory, VAULT Festival sees several new shows telling the stories of women marginalised by history. 10 is the history of Britain since Boudicca told by ten influential women while Fat Rascal’s Galvanise sees three young women rediscover forgotten female leaders from across the world. New musical The Limit puts the self-taught mathematician Sophie Germain centre-stage exploring how she disguised herself as a man to submit work. Lola is the rich feminist unpicking of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita which gives the eponymous character a voice to express her justifiable rage and discuss self-harm, stalking and extremely large breasts.

Family Fun

Bobbing their way back to London, Faceplant Theatre return with One Duck Down, an eco-friendly family comedy inspired by the 7,000 rubber ducks that spilled into the ocean in 1992. Winner of Best Family Show at VAULT Festival 2018, this musical production about oceans and plastic pollution would make David Attenborough proud. Also promoting environmental responsibility with a twinkle in their eye, Blue Planet III is a nature documentary from two interns determined to fight rising sea levels and pollution to film the third series of Blue Planet within a flooded BBC.

Encouraging inclusivity and creativity, Spun Glass Theatre’s Princess Charming is a topical exploration of gender identity for children aged seven to eleven. This hilarious play enables them to deeper understand their own identities and, in doing so, break free of gender stereotypes. Singing, dancing and teaching Cantonese vocabulary, Boh Boh Finds Home is the interactive adventure and debut show from Little Bean Theatre which allows families to travel through the galaxy together. How to Date a Magical Creature features a multi-award winning BAFTA and Olivier-winning cast who create a brand-new improvised chat show every night as the most famous fantastical beasties reveal their most intimate secrets and gossip.

Lates

Kicking the weekends off with blowout parties and irresistible iniquity, the Festival’s series of Lates promises nights of adventure. On Saturday 2nd February, Pecs Drag King Collective will be giving VAULT Festival the chance to be King for a Night. Visit the Mansformation Station to get ready for hot cabaret performances, sweaty dancing, 90s RnB and all your favourite drag kings. Other highlights include a Valentine’s Special Eat Your Heart Out! from Shotgun Carousel, the critically acclaimed team behind Divine Proportions. From raunch to romance, it will be one huge celebration of all flavours of feminist love with a multi-room extravaganza of bands, DJs, cabaret and, even, a sham wedding chapel. Rounding off the explosive programme, immersive specialists SPECIFIQ and Rogue Productions return to VAULT Festival with RUCKUS, a raucous St Patrick’s Day shindig with a vintage gangster vibe. Join us underground because no one parties like the Irish Mob.

And this is only a taste of the incredible programme, head to vaultfestival.com for full listings and more information about all the shows heading to Waterloo for the Festival. VAULT Festival promises to set alight your long winter nights in 2019.

The Vault Festival runs from Wednesday 23rd January – Sunday 17th March 2019 in Waterloo, SE1. Buy tickets here.