VAULT 2022: Six more shows that should have been.
The productions, the artists behind them, and what they are up to instead.
Hello, and welcome to The Crush Bar, a weekly newsletter about theatre written by me, Fergus Morgan.
Each issue usually features an interview with an exciting, emerging theatremaker - and gives them a chance to be explicit about where they want to go and what help they need to get there. This issue, though, like that of a fortnight ago, is slightly different.
VAULT’s cancellation was a devastating blow for dozens and dozens of artists and companies, and I wanted to do what little I could to offer some support to people who were planning on performing at the festival, so I decided to dedicate several issues of this newsletter to the shows that should have been. I’ve already done one. This is the second.
It will find out about the shows, the artists behind them, what they were hoping to achieve at VAULT Festival, and what they are planning on doing instead. To receive future issues featuring more shows that should have been, and my regular interviews with emerging artists, you can subscribe to The Crush Bar below.
1. Fashion Spies - Quick Duck Theatre
Who are you?
I'm Will Jackson, and I'm a Birmingham-based theatre maker and the artistic director of Midlands-based theatre company Quick Duck. Our work is ridiculous, openly queer, has a lot of heart and always has a killer soundtrack.
What was your show at VAULT 2022?
Fashion Spies is an absurd, queer, funny, choose-your-own-adventure aimed at audiences aged 7 and above. Think Devil Wears Prada meets Spy Kids but on acid. There are car chases, songs and an underground revolution led by some talking foxes. What more could you want?!
What were you hoping to achieve at VAULT 2022?
Ideally, tour bookings. We are now looking for summer preview slots before the Edinburgh Fringe, and tour dates between autumn 2022 and summer 2023. We know there's a demand for shows like this, and we want Fashion Spies to reach as many people as possible.
Where can people find out more about you?
You’ll be able to catch Fashion Spies in Edinburgh this August. If any programmers are interested in booking it, or any of our other shows, please email. I’m about to tour my solo show Yours Sincerely, too. You can get tickets here. I'm on Twitter, and you can keep up to date on all things Quick Duck on Twitter and Instagram.
2. 24, 23, 22 - Chronic Insanity
Who are you?
Chronic Insanity is a Nottingham-based theatre company that creates and facilitates live events in a variety of traditional, found, and digital spaces. We run a digital theatre literary department, an East Midlands artist support scheme, and are staging 12 shows in 12 months for the third year in a row.
What was your show at VAULT 2022?
24, 23, 22 is a lo-fi, hip-hop, gig-theatre production about the impact people have on each other and what happens when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is written by Douglas Deans, directed and composed by our artistic director, Joe Strickland, produced by Lotty Holder, and performed by Ruth Page and Joe Matty.
What were you hoping to achieve at VAULT 2022?
Having performed the play in a few different ways already, we wanted to use VAULT to finalise the in-person version of the show. We’re certain that more gig-theatre should be playing music venues and festivals and our aim for 24, 23, 22 is to do just that.
Where can people find out more about you?
We stage at least 12 shows throughout the year, with updates posted to our socials and website whenever a new production rears its head. We currently have an alternate reality game available as part of Living Record Festival, and are developing a series of micro-plays to be randomly emailed to people, and an immersive and playable show based on the SCP Foundation for Spring 2022.
3. Dreamers 夢中人 - Papergang Theatre
Who are you?
Papergang Theatre is a theatre company with the aim of improving the representation of British East and South-East Asian (BESEA) culture across the dramatic arts, primarily in UK theatre.
What was your show at VAULT 2022?
Dreamers 夢中人 is the sequel to our award-winning 2020 show Freedom Hi 自由閪. It sees a multidisciplinary group of BESEA artists come together to track the changes in Hong Kong over the past two years. It is a constantly evolving compilation of lived experience, live art, and dance.
What were you hoping to achieve at VAULT 2022?
With Dreamers 夢中人, we hoped to make use of the opportunities that a VAULT run would offer, and transfer the show to another venue to develop it beyond a festival version for a longer run. We feel like we missed out in 2020, when the prequel was well-received and won the Show of the Week Award, but lockdown started a day after our last show!
Where can people find out more about you?
We are currently scheduled at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham in June 2022, which we are really grateful for. Finding another venue allowed us to continue developing the piece in February with only a small delay. We are still working out the logistics around the dates but you can keep updated via our website.
4. Little Sausage/Pickle - Deborah Vogt, Joshua Fowley/Deli Segal and Tanya Truman
Who are you?
I'm Tanya Truman, a performer who started producing during the pandemic. I'm still very early on in my producing career but had two confirmed projects for VAULT Festival, both new pieces of writing and both very different.
What was your show at VAULT 2022?
I was producing two shows: a new one-woman comedy called Pickle by Deli Segal, which is about a Jewish woman caught between two worlds, and a new verbatim musical called Little Sausage by Deborah Vogt and Josh Fowley, about veganism and toxic masculinity.
What were you hoping to achieve at VAULT 2022?
Pickle is a brand new piece of writing and VAULT was going to be its debut performance. Little Sausage has already undergone some development workshops but VAULT was going to be the premiere of the longer, most recent draft of the show.
Where can people find out more about you?
Pickle is continuing with its scheduled rehearsal time, but focusing now on R&D rather than immediate production. We would love to have a run later in the year, and have had some early discussions with venues. We are planning some scratch performances and feedback sessions where we will get the work on its feet. The first one of these will be at the Jewish Museum on March 13.
Little Sausage has been offered three performances at The Other Palace in early March. We are thrilled as The Other Palace studio space is the ideal fit for this quirky new musical! Following this, we hope to take it on a small-scale UK tour and to the Edinburgh Fringe.
5. Dolly - Chantelle Dusette and Bruised Sky Productions
Who are you?
I am Chantelle Dusette, writer and performer. I recently became co-artistic director of Bruised Sky Productions, which I am really excited about, as I feel I now have an opportunity to support under-represented artists, from any background, who are passionate about storytelling.
What was your show at VAULT 2022?
Dolly is an auto-biographical two-hander, which examines dealing with childhood trauma as an adult. It covers a few themes: mother-daughter relationships, motherhood, beauty, and the challenges of living with third-degree burns.
Sarah Henley and Timothy O’Hara direct Dan Connolly and me, with Monica Nicolaides as movement director, and Emily Hamilton as producer. We are also in partnership with The Katie Piper Foundation to raise awareness and help support burns survivors.
What were you hoping to achieve at VAULT 2022?
We were fortunate to have a work-in-progress staging last year at VAULT’s Fringe Futures Festival. This year we had planned to stage a full production, with the intention of getting housed in a venue for a three-week run.
Where can people find out more about you?
At the moment, we are taking our time to recalibrate. We are still going to use a week of our NDT Broadgate space to come together as team, to have a bit of a play and do a shared reading. The cancellation of VAULT has made us more determined than ever to find the right home for Dolly.
The Crush Bar is totally free and unfunded at present, so anything you can do to support it is hugely appreciated. There are three helpful things in particular: you can subscribe using the button above, you can share it, either on social media or by forwarding it to anyone who might be interested, and you can donate to my Ko-Fi account using the button below.
If you want to get in touch with me to ask about anything, or to suggest someone who deserves a shout-out in this newsletter, you can reach me on Twitter - I’m @FergusMorgan - or by simply replying to this email. That’s all for now. Back in a week. Thanks for reading.
Fergus Morgan