Just when we thought VAULT festival was done and dusted for 2023, the organisers go and announce a special mini-blowout taking place this summer.
A Pinch of VAULT brings 60 new and WIP shows to The Glitch on Lower Marsh in Waterloo — with comedy running from 24 May-4 June, and theatre taking over 6-18 June. (Judging from the line-up, a lot of the theatre is packed with laughs, too.)
Among the acts squeezing into the pint-sized venue (one of the stages is basically an underground corridor, and somehow that makes it all the cooler) are:
- Armed with her her mini keyboard and an opera degree, Amy Webber plays and sings her way through No Previous Experience, a show about the never-ending grind of finding freelance work (27 May)
- Viral comedy doyenne Stevie Martin hops offs the internet, for a couple of WIPs (28 May and 4 June)
- Theo Hristov's one-person play Bad Sex is about an actor who suffers a public meltdown after a personal tragedy sends him into a spiral (7-8 June)
- Niamh Denyer puts the 'fun' back into funeral with dark comedy show Get Blessed!, in which she teaches the audience how to 'turn ash into cash' (7-9 June)
- Polis Loizou tells of his life as "a creature so terrifying, most humans dare not speak its name", in I Was a Teenage Bisexual (13 June)
- Female-led company Fur Coat No Knickers ask "Is being Vanilla really an insult, or are we just afraid of the ordinary?" (15 June)
VAULT, in case you didn't know, is one of London's most vibrant and diverse arts festivals — 2023's edition welcomed some 81,000 audience members to 553 shows, featuring stand-up, sketch, monologues, musicals, drag and more. It is, in essence, London's version of the Edinburgh Fringe.
There is, however, a snag. At the end of its run this year, VAULT announced it was being kicked out of its subterranean network of venues in Leake Street, meaning it's seeking a new home for 2024. Money from A Pinch of VAULT will go towards ensuring the main festival continues.
A Pinch of VAULT, The Glitch, 24 May-18 June
