Tag Archives: Vault Festival

Writer: Jordan Waller Director:  Max Gill Reviewer:  Richard Maguire The D Word is Jordan Waller’s slick one-man show about origins and grief. We are never quite sure what the D word is. At first it seems to stand for Dawn, the name of one of his lesbian mothers. But as this one-hour play progresses other words starting with D seem just ...

Writer: David K. Barnes Director:  John Rushton Reviewer:  Richard Maguire In writer David K. Barnes’ parallel world, life is much the same in the coastal towns of England; people still eat ice creams and beauty contests are banned, but, strangely, dancing monkeys are still a seaside entertainment. This is the set-up for a dark parable on gaslighting, and yet, despite ...

As the VAULT Festival enters its fourth week, The Reviews Hub’s Richard Maguire talked to Kane Husbands about his new show GIRLS, the follow-up to last year’s phenomenal BOYS. A dance piece with words, GIRLS looks at the pressure on all women to conform to a certain stereotype. Kane Husbands created his physical theatre company, The PappyShow, in 2013, and ...

Writer and Director: Conor Hunt   Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Oldham 2001, and a race riot turns the streets alight as Pakistani residents build barricades against the police, and white racists. Hammad and Michael take refuge in a park after being chased by men they cheerily call ‘knob heads’. In the middle of this mayhem, the two 17-year-old boys can become ...

Writer and Performer: Len Blanco/ Helen White Director:  Freyja Winterson Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Len Blanco, former member of 1990s boyband M4, is live at The Palladium, for one night only! He’s on the comeback tour. If the Backstreet Boys can do it, then so can Len. He’s still got the moves, he’s still got the voice, but, unfortunately, Firing Blancs, ...

Writer: Joel Samuels Director: Liz Bacon Reviewer: Mike Wells Death is a subject rarely associated with celebration, but A Wake in Progress challenges this idea with a mixture of good humour and audience participation. Tonight, we followed Daffodil’s story (her name decided by a member of the audience) played by Molly Small (also decided by the audience). The show begins with ...

Writers: Joel Samuels and Madeline Gould   Reviewer:  Richard Maguire In 2018 a female photographer with the pseudonym of Grace accused the American comedian Aziz Ansari of sexual assault after their date. The couple went back to his flat in New York after dinner, and the two engaged in sexual activity. If you read her account of the evening it is ...

Writer: Alice Malseed Director:  Katherine Nesbitt Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Surprisingly for a play set in Northern Ireland, Jade City is not about The Troubles, and yet the threat of violence is never far away in this lyrical two-hander by Alice Malseed. In revealing the lives of two Belfast lads, Jade City is a brutal examination of masculinity. Sas and Monty,both approaching their ...