THEGAYUK

Tag: The Vaults Theatre

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Red Palace, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Red Palace, London

    ★★★★ | Red Palace, The Vaults, London

    The Vaults underneath Waterloo train station have been turned into a palace – Red Palace.

    And it’s the Prince who reigns over this kingdom. Follow him and his court as they help guide you through various rooms and alleys that will surprise and hypnotize you – they are scenes right out of Alice in Wonderland.

    The Vaults have been turned into a labyrinth where you get snippets of his story and are guests at his masquerade party. Enjoy the show in the redecorated Vaults where you are led to various rooms including a room where a Mermaid will tell you her deepest darkest secrets – and she’ll ask for yours! Baba Yaga predicts the future and tells fortunes in her harem, while in the swamp you will more than likely get lost!

    The whole adventure is eerie and scary but really cool! Be really immersive and go for the dinner before the show, while a bit rushed, immerses you immediately in the evening where you get to meet the Prince and his guests to the party.

    I highly recommend the dinner as you get to meet, over a meal of three courses, your fellow attendees. The delicious meal consists of homemade soda bread with dips, delicious lentil and roasted beetrood salad and baked camembert, wth the main course being a delicious slow cooked lamb, with squash, potatoes, cabbage – and to top it off you are treated to a candy apple for dessert. It throws you immediately into the show! Or if you prefer to arrive a bit later for the ball- it’s a masquerade ball so masks and elaborate costumes, while not mandatory, are recommended – it’s ok!

    There is also a bar open all night during the show to get you lubricated with drinks that are unlike any you’d ever had before.

    The evening as a whole is a bit complicated as there are no clear cut instructions. My friend and I must’ve missed a couple of the interactive rooms because we just didn’t know who to follow or where to go. And going into the evening not knowing what it was all about left us more confused as the characters finished off the evening in a joust/fight and the main room opened up and became a dance floor.
    I’m thinking I might have to go back just to re-live, and to understand, what I was supposed to be a part of, and what this show was all about.
  • THEATRE REVIEW | Kompromat, The Vaults, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Kompromat, The Vaults, London

    The unsolved 2010 murder of Gareth Williams is the focus of a new show called ‘Kompromat’ now playing at The Vaults as part of their Vault Festival 2019.

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    Williams was found dead in his Pimlico flat, naked and stuffed into a red bag. Foul play was the expected cause death as there was no way that he could’ve zipped himself in that bag on his own. Kompromat goes so far as to suggest that Williams, who was suspected of being gay, was targeted by another man, someone he hooked up with at a gay bar, and took him back home, and that this hook-up would be William’s last one. Max Rinehart plays Zac, goodlooking and convincing, enough so that any gay man would be lucky to take him home. Guy Warren-Thomas plays Tom (Gareth), shy, a bit introverted, yet careful who he lets into his life. Zac is very confident, and as we get to learn, he’s been around the block a few times, and as his story unravels, so does the soon to be shortened life of Tom. All of this takes place in the intimacy of The Vaults which has on tap loads of other gay-related stories to tell during the 2 month festival.

    Other offerings include:

    Open

    Two husbands. One hundred lovers. A modern day romance. Join Chris and Tim for an intimate exploration of their love, jealousy and desire for one another…and many, many others.

    23 — 27 Jan 2019

    Juniper and Jules

    Until Juniper, Jules hadn’t realised she liked girls. Falling headlong into a relationship, in a world where monogamy is the norm, they soon discover they want to do things differently.

    23 — 27 Jan 2019

    Yours Sincerely

    Will has accidentally stolen 300 2nd class stamps, but he’s making them count. A queer comedy about the lost art of letter writing. Stamp collecting has never looked so sexy.

    30 Jan — 03 Feb 2019

    Greyscale

    Explore the minefields of dating in a post #metoo era. Who do we have faith in when one party believes it’s sexual misconduct, and the other, simply a bad date?

    02 Feb — 17 Mar 2019

    Bleach (main photo)

    Tyler sells his body nightly, but his world is about to be turned upside down when life takes a sinister turn. A soul-jolting story of sex, violence and city living.

    06 — 10 Feb 2019

    Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Instagram star Tom Lenk portrays iconic actress Tilda Swinton, imagined as an edgy, modern day Mary Poppins in this LGBTQ hit and Edinburgh Fringe favourite.

    06 — 17 Feb 2019

    Marmite

    Dylan and Eddie have just moved in together. They’re both really happy. Except Dylan isn’t. Between sex parties and roast dinners, ‘Marmite’ explores gay monogamy.

    13 — 17 Feb 2019

    ADMIN

    Pisín moved to London to pursue his dream of becoming socially mobile. Now, he’s having an existential crisis in a Pret A Manger toilet, trying to remember his mindfulness techniques.

    18:1027 — 28 Feb 2019

    Coming Clean: Life As A Naked House Cleaner

    Sex! Fantasies! Voyeurism! Vacuuming! Come inside the world of a naked cleaner as he explores what we want and what stops us from asking for it.

    27 Feb — 03 Mar 2019

    General Erection (a political cabaret)

    COMPILING THE SHARPEST AND MOST OUTRAGEOUS ACTS ON THE CIRCUIT, HERE IS A VARIETY NIGHT THAT CATERS TO BOTH THE 52% AND THE RACISTS WHO VOTED TO LEAVE!

    22:50

    07 Mar 2019

    Gaylords

    “GAYLORD NOUN, PEJORATIVE. Used to describe someone so gay it defies the laws of physics.” A gay hour of comedy from two Gaylords. Work in progress. Breeders welcome.<

    10 Mar 2019

    For tickets to Kompromat, which ends on Feb. 3, please go here:

    https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/kompromat/?spektrix_bounce=true

    Eight weeks of theatre and comedy, immersive experiences, cabaret, live performance and late night parties.

    To see the mega program with all the shows on offer, please go here:
    https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Hair, The Vaults, London

    ★★★ | Hair The Musical, The Vaults

    Hair, the original naked musical, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in a new production at The Vaults in London. Is the message that it sent in the hippie lovin’ 60s still relevant today? You betcha.

    When Hair was originally produced off-Broadway in New York City in 1967, its message of anti-establishment and free love, anti-war, and its display of full frontal nudity shocked audiences back then, leading to more publicity and packed houses. Now that we have Donald Trump in the most powerful office in the world, and with the UK ready to break off from the EU, and not to mention the political and socioeconomic changes happening around the world, Hair’s message is perhaps more relevant than ever before. But is it actually a good show?

    In the tiny, cosy and very hot theatre that is The Vaults under Waterloo station, 14 actors playing hippies sing and dance and sway their young lithe bodies all over the dirt floor that is the stage, and for one brief moment at the very end of the first half, they all get naked. And before and after in the second half, we are sung and spoken to by these youngsters as they tell their anti-war tales and burn their draft cards and the unlucky ones who are sent to fight in a war but come back with limbs, and emotions, gone.

    Yet all the favourite songs are here, songs that include ‘Aquarius,’ ‘Good Morning Starshine,’ and ‘Let the Sunshine In,’ songs that make this show famous, more so than the script. So if you’ve never actually seen Hair performed, go and see it now as this might be your last opportunity, but don’t expect to be wowed and awed in this production, though it might help if you take some stimulants to get you through the evening as this show is as mellow as can be.

    Hair plays at the Vaults Theatre, London until 3rd December 2017

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Miss Nightingale, The Vaults, London

    ★★★★ | Miss Nightingale, The Vaults, London

    Miss Nightingale review
    CREDIT: Robert Workman

    The story of a chanteuse called Miss Nightingale who is caught between three men in 1940’s London during WW2 is now playing at The Vaults under Waterloo Station.

    Leaving war-ravaged Berlin behind, Maggie Brown (a very talented Tamar Broadbent) and Polish George Nowodny (an excellent Conor O’Kane) arrive in The Big Smoke with Brown’s musical talent. Almost immediately, Brown is spotted by producer Sir Frank Worthington-Blythe (Nicholas Coutu-Langmead) and is urged to start singing for her supper. She’s a hit and starts dating Tom the drummer (Niall Kerrigan). But when their relationship goes down the drain (a bit unexpectedly), Brown, now known by her stage name of Miss Nightingale, falls into the arms of Frank. But Frank and the seductive George have struck up a relationship, all of this amidst the constant threat of blackouts, bombs and The Blitz – life in London during World War II was a treacherous and at times tortuous place.

    Miss Nightingale is similar to the storyline in Cabaret where the songs are catchy and campy, however, there is the fear of the unknown, and it’s set amidst the drama and terror that is happening in the outside world. Broadbent is absolutely wonderful as the star of the show, petite yet singing with a big voice and big personality – she commands the stage. Coutu-Langdmead is just as good in his meaty role as Brown’s best confidante and Frank’s lover – though he’s got lots of emotional scars from his past that he can’t soon forget. But the actors in this show not only act, they also play the instruments! O’Kane is especially adept when he’s playing several instruments during one of Broadbent’s songs – is there nothing this man can’t do? The action (and drama) takes place in the small stage space that is The Vaults, not much space to move around but the actors do it, and class it up with their excellent performances and singing.

    I can’t recommend this show enough – it’s got everything going for it – and there’s a cosy bar for those all important pre-show and interval drinks!

    Miss Nightingale is playing at The Vaults until May 20th.

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | F*cking Men

    THEATRE REVIEW | F*cking Men

    ★★★★ | F*cking Men

    If you’ve ever heard of the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ then you’ll already know the theme of Arthur Schnitzel’s classic 1897 play Le Ronde. Couples copulate and the circle goes round with one-half of each couple appearing in the next scene with a new partner and the half of the first couple seen on stage appearing as one-half of the final shagging couple. Joe DiPietro’s updated version of his 2015 play features men f***ing. Lots of them. The three actors take on various roles including a rent boy, a soldier, a Hollywood actor, a married couple and a porn star. It’s a great concept and it actually works.

    The dialogue is sharp and witty and the play is by turns grimy, tender and darkly comedic as well as at times, erotic. Men fumble, fellate and f*** (you’d want your money back if they didn’t, wouldn’t you?). The situations are sometimes familiar, sometimes exotic and DiPietro manages to cover a lot of pertinent issues without being dull or preachy. From the young soldier pretending to himself that having his cock sucked doesn’t make him gay to the couple with intricate rules attached to their open relationship (which, of course, they aren’t abiding to); these are situations that are bound to resonate with a gay audience.

    A couple of the scenes jar slightly and there’s the odd discordant character but mostly these people feel spot on. The three actors are as talented as they’re hot. This is a feast for the intellect as well as the eyes and it’s a thought provoking and wise piece.

    I’d highly recommend getting down to The Vaults at Waterloo to catch this play. David Hare’s 1998 version of La Ronde (The Blue Room which starred a naked Nicole Kidman) was famously described as ‘pure theatrical Viagra’. This is a triple dose of Viagra in a tunnel at Waterloo. Now that’s not something you get offered every day.

    F***ing Men runs at The Vaults Theatre until 4th December