It’s back and better than ever: VAULT Festival, the UK’s leading independent festival of live  performance, makes its joyful return in 2023. Running from 24th January – 19th March 2023 in  venues across Waterloo, the programme features over 500 of the best theatre, comedy, cabaret and  late-night shows from some of the brightest talents across the live performance industry.

VAULT Festival Director & Co-Founder Andy George comments, It’s been a tumultuous few years for  us and our artists. There have been many times when the story of VAULT Festival could have ended.  But through those challenging moments we kept believing in the idea; that VAULT Festival can affect  positive change in our world through joy and creativity. Our resolve has been pushed to the limit. But  we’re back. And we can’t wait to share these fantastic artists and shows with everyone! 

Alongside the renowned programme of thrilling live theatre and performance, VAULT Comedy  Festival is the first chance to see fresh material from more established comics and debut  performances from the next generation of comedic talent. Brand new for 2023 will be The Flair  Ground, a purpose-built venue featuring the finest imaginations in cabaret, drag, burlesque, circus  and performance art talent.

The theme of reclaiming joy runs throughout VAULT Festival this year, considering how we hold  onto beauty in bleak circumstances. This is especially seen in the work of the VAULT Five artists, live  performance makers in VAULT Festival’s mentoring programme. Tatenda Shamiso’s NO ID is  inspired by the bureaucracy of transitioning, speaking both to the unjust difficulties and the  unadulterated joy that comes from embracing queerness. Time from Beinghuman reclaims the  voices of women over 50 with integrated projection mapping while Right of Way by Beth Bowden  celebrates coastal walks and the connection between land and body.

Identity is explored in Tatenda Matsvai’s Dark Matter, which brings together quantum physics and  Zimbabwean myth to reconnect and reconcile with one woman’s past, and Walking Cats, transports its audience to Kilburn and China simultaneously in a tale of homesickness and migrant identity.  Shortlisted for the Charlie Hartill award and the Les Enfants Terribles Award, It’s A Motherf*cking  Pleasure explores how blindness can be exploited by the entertainment industry, and Molko highlights non-consensual upskirting in Korea. Gig theatre piece The Phase brings catchy pop punk  to an oppressive school setting, and geopolitical circumstances are studied with a queer lens in true  story Borders, where a Lebanese man and an Israeli meet on Grindr.

Physical storytelling comes to life in Incognito Theatre’s Net Kill, exploring the story of a five-man  badminton team sent to vanquish a beast – a show that includes live badminton! One woman show  High Steaks highlights labiaplasty in a powerful rebellion against labia-shaming, and Katherine and  Pierre marries physical theatre and clowning in a dance routine to the songs of Katy Perry. The  moving and immersive experience Theatre of Gulags invites audiences to walk through USSR labour  camps and the theatres that were built inside.

VAULT Festival’s Excellence in Sustainability Award winner My Lover Was A Salmon in the Climate  Apocalypse brings the climate revolution to the forefront of gig theatre after a successful run at  2022’s Edinburgh Fringe. Caligula and the Sea by VAULT Five artist Yuxuan Liu brings magical  realism to the decline of the Roman Empire, examining themes of power, friendship, and the  environment.

Edinburgh Fringe favourite Police Cops bring Badass Be Thy Name for a two-week run, and VAULT  Festival Pick of Summerhall Award winner Intruder | Intruz comes to VAULT Festival with a heart wrenching, unique and brutal true story of immigration and judgement. Liv Ello’s experimental dark  comedy Swarm explores the connection between expressions of white privilege and the behaviour  of flies, and Manchester’s thriving cultural hub HOME comes to London with Ugly Bucket’s smash  Edinburgh Fringe hit Good Grief, fulfilling a dying wish with clowning and a thumping techno  soundtrack.

VAULT Festival’s Excellence in Accessibility Award winner Part of the Main bring a trio of captivating  tales to this year’s festival – irreverent stand-up special Bloody Mary, the twisting, unsettling tale of  The Tinker and All By Myself, a study into isolation and the online world.

Familiar faces returning to VAULT Festival include Adam Scott Rowley, James Rowland and Roann McCloskey. Katie Arnstein (It’s A Girl trilogy) brings brand new show The Long Run, exploring the  comedy within cancer, and queer-cult sensation In PurSUEt returns to entertain audiences once  more with its tale of celebrity obsession and internal battle. Podcasts Beowulf Unbound and Barry  McStay’s Worst Foot Forward will record episodes as part of the festival programme.

As part of the wider VAULT Festival, an incredible wrestling ring will be set up for the one-day  Wrestling Festival, featuring kickass parenting narrative Mummy Vs, NHSmackdown in  collaboration with Sh*t Theatre, and queer cabaret and pro wrestling night Fistclub Vaulterdome.

Experience the best and boldest work from the most exciting new voices in VAULT’s Generation V takeover, featuring VAULT Young Company’s Joy, about young people trying to find their joy in a  world falling apart, and brand new shows from two of the UK’s leading creative drama schools, East  15 and Fourth Monkey.

VAULT Festival’s family programme will delight and captivate audiences of all ages. Cabababarave sets The Flair Ground alight with some of the finest circus performers entertaining children under  two, alongside Edinburgh Fringe hit Science Adventures of the Power Pickle. Around the World  With Nelly Bly will captivate young audiences with puppetry, and Blue Badge Bunch educates and  entertains, using interactive games to give audiences the experience of understanding what it is like  to have different disabilities. Mules bring their out-of-control dance moves to VAULT Comedy  Festival’s family programme, and The Suitcase Storytelling Company’s The Girl and the Dragon – highlights the power of stories and kindness to young audiences.

As part of VAULT Comedy Festival, Improv maestros The Free Association bring back their critically  acclaimed shows with an improv takeover including 666 Hell Lane and Minority Report, and featuring an all-star cast and special guests to create one-of-a-kind comedy experiences. Joz Norris  performs his Edinburgh Fringe hit show Blink and Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner Adam Riches  revives his very first solo show Victor. And don’t miss the return of John Robertson with the world’s  only live-action, text-based adventure game The Dark Room.  

Work in progress shows across VAULT Comedy Festival remain a brilliant chance to see innovative new material from household names and fresh and upcoming voices. Luisa Omielan brings her  work-in-progress WWBD? looking at how the world treats women, and Kat Bond performs a brand  new hour of material with Pleaser. This year’s festival also sees new shows from 2020 Dave’s  Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jordan Brookes, social-media sensation Tatty Macleod, who  brings her sketches to life with a unique blend of French and English humour. Edinburgh Fringe hits Chloe Petts and Sarah Keyworth, Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nabil Abdul Rasheed and host of The  Comedian’s Comedian podcast Stuart Goldsmith all return to VAULT Comedy Festival with the  beginnings of their new shows.

A Londoner, a Dane, a Somali, an American and a Canadian walk into a comedy festival… and  present Comix Without Borders. Live at the Apollo’s Sikisa brings a work-in-progress of her second  show Words, Edinburgh Fringe Best Newcomer nominee Helen Bauer presents a work-in-progress  show of her new thoughts, feelings and emotions on pretty much everything, and Matt Ewans brings new videos and returning favourites to audiences in Tech Experiments.

Taking inspiration from lived experience David Ferguson’s Nice Bum looks at his former experiences  as a homeless person through a tragi-comic lens, and Benji Waterstones has turned his experiences  as an NHS psychiatrist into You Don’t Have To Be Mad To Work Here, an engaging and entertaining  hour of comedy. Dan Kelly tells the true story of trying to run 26.2 miles in the most secretive nation  on earth in How I Came Third in the North Korean Marathon, directed by Fringe-favourite Joseph  Morpurgo. VAULT Festival’s Excellence in Inclusion Award winner and Dave’s Comedy Awards Panel  Prize 2022 winner Best In Class, a crowd-funded, profit-sharing initiative that champions working class comedians from across the UK, present a night of new comedy hosted by founder Sian Davies.

The Flair Ground at VAULT Festival is where to come for the best, most diverse and exciting nights  out in the city. You Shall Not Yass looks at satire and parody to explore queerness on film, hosted by  the largest collective of underground drag queens on the circuit including Me The Drag Queen, whilst Sexquisite presents political theatre-cabaret about sex worker rights, based on real life  experiences.

Bitten Peach return to VAULT Festival and will light up The Flair Ground with their continued  ground-breaking representation of pan-Asian artists, and Matt Ricardo performs his gravity defying  juggling show The Extraordinary Gentleman, as seen on Britain’s Got Talent. Brand new collective  What’s Good Cabaret focus on conversation for the booty shakin’ generation, whilst black femme  queer-led collective Juicebox create an empowering strip club for all to enjoy. Focussing on young  and exciting talent that was lost in the last two years, the Clandestine Cabaret fuse projections and  burlesque in a technology hybrid, and Uptown Swing bring their live band for a speakeasy like no  other.

House of Burlesque present Poli-tits, selling the current bonfire of news from the world we live in  with burlesque, cabaret and satire, along with the return of their mega silent disco Glitterball. Rhys’s  Pieces and the Queefy Queerdos continue to kick down the door of what drag looks like with their  cabaret extravaganza, and get sinning with a cabaret disco dance party to leave you speaking in  tongues with feminist, trash-pot party starters Church of Pussy Liquor. Satire cabaret artist Laurie  Black also returns for a knees-up around the piano, along with drag king collective Pecs and drag  king Brent Wood.

To kick VAULT Festival 2023 off with a bang, VAULT Festival invite you to their Big Birthday Bash to  celebrate over a decade of VAULT Festivals. Hosted by Rhys’s Pieces, this night of cabaret and circus  asks you to help yourself to birthday cake, visit the glitter station, and bring your party hat!

Head to vaultfestival.com for the full programme and to book your tickets to these must-see shows and many more. Tickets are on sale now. VAULT Festival is back, and promises to light up the cold  winter nights of 2023.

Comments are closed.