The Vaults Archives - Page 16 of 28 - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“more entertaining and engaging than a lot of first dates”

The VAULT Festival is now in full swing entering its third week of presenting bold and brave shows. With Valentine’s Day looming, it’s currently all about lurve … Singletons, don’t worry, you won’t be made to feel ashamed or hideously reminded of the fact that you are drinking a bottle of wine, and demolishing a whole tub of Celebrations alone in your flat. I Would Like To Get To Know You, if anything, shows the difficulties and quite frankly, pain in the backside modern relationships can be. In a collaboration between Feral Foxy Ladies and Kaleido Film Collective, a cohesive mix of mediums and outside-the-box ideas help to make this delightful little show more entertaining and engaging than a lot of first dates.

Told in six parts, the evolution of the modern relationship is revealed. From its nucleus – matching on a dating app, to its inevitable extinction – the breakup. Audio clips of real-life interviews with people about their love lives (the good and the bad), make up the main bulk of the content, becoming the chief stimulus for the action that takes place on stage. Katherine Vince and George Cheetham create original songs, expressive dance routines, and comedic scenes around the audio, allowing a feast for all the senses.

Vince and Cheetham make a fun partnership. Vince may seem to wear the trousers in this relationship, dominating the stage with her kooky yet confident presence, however it is Cheetham, quietly in the background, generally providing the live music content, which is the integral puzzle piece in setting the tone and mood of the show.

The space is devoid of any set, however the area is filled with so many props, as well as the projector screen for the audio and visual portions of the performance that there’s enough busyness to take in. It’s cluttered, but this seems to well represent the inside of the millennial’s mind.

Although there are no revelations to be had from watching this performance, its strength lies in affirming how most of us twenty/thirty-somethings are all in the same boat: having the same awkward conversation starters on Tinder, remaining on dates with someone you know isn’t right for you within the first two minutes of meeting, looking for similar things in a potential life partner. It’s a lovely validation that so many of us are going through the same struggles. It brings the audience together. As do the collective laughs. Fun, flirty, and full of familiar embarrassing stories, it’s a match!

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography courtesy Feral Foxy Ladies & Kaleido Film Collective

We’ve Got Each Other

The Vaults

Reviewed – 6 February 2019

★★★½

“Because O’Donnell proves he’s a ‘triple threat’, it’s hard not to want more than what we’re given”

We’ve Got Each Other is an anticipated twelve-times Olivier Award nominated musical spectacular. A cast of thirty-five, a full band rocking Bon Jovi tunes, Bruno Tonioli choreography, gorgeous costumes, and confetti cannons make for an unforgettable night of theatre. Or at least it would have, if Paul O’Donnell had had the budget for it. Due to a few logistical snags, the final result is… a bit different from the initial pitch. But ‘the show must go on’, and on it goes, as a one-man musical. O’Donnell reassures us, we’ve got the script, some good music, and most importantly, we’ve got each other. And that’s a lot.

Paul O’Donnell is hilarious, wonderfully awkward and apologetic, as he talks the audience through the show that ‘might have been’. He sits on the side of a bare stage under an Ikea lamp with the script. He invites us to use our imagination to make up for the lack of… everything really. Lighting cues (Arnim Friess) follow actors who aren’t there. O’Donnell narrates the story and the dancing play-by-play, vividly immersing the audience into a non-existent jukebox musical. It’s a laugh-out-loud funny spoof. He relentlessly, lovingly, mocks every aspect of musical theatre from the overwrought melodrama down to the set changes. Various recorded versions of “Livin’ on a Prayer” (acapella, instrumental) serve as the soundtrack.

O’Donnell embraces the very camp he’s poking fun at: his enthusiasm for this terrible Bon Jovi musical is infectious. It’s a bit of a shame, then, that it takes him until the second half to get up out of the chair. He spends most of the time sitting, half-mimicking the would-be dancing. The restraint of his position seems at odds with his eagerness and excitement. It’s gratifying when he finally gets up and fully dances, sings, and acts out the scenes. If he were to do this from the start, it would ramp up the energy of the show, which feels underdone while he’s confined to the chair. Because O’Donnell proves he’s a ‘triple threat’, it’s hard not to want more than what we’re given. Additionally, for a Bon Jovi musical, it would have been nice to hear more than one Bon Jovi song. Not sure whether it’s intentional for humour or copyright reasons, but comedy-wise it seems like loading a six-barrel gun with just one bullet.

One man reading through a musical script on a blank stage sounds like a long sixty minutes. The catch is that somehow O’Donnell is funny, creative, and talented enough to pull it off. Fans of musicals will truly enjoy this hilarious, incisive love letter to the genre. But even my companions who are not regular theatre-goers were repeatedly in stitches. This no-budget musical may be livin’ on a prayer, but it’s living its best life. Give it a shot.

Tag Archives: The Vaults

I Would Like To Get To Know You
★★★

VAULT Festival

The Vaults

Reviewed – 6 February 2019

★★★

“more entertaining and engaging than a lot of first dates”

The space is devoid of any set, however the area is filled with so many props, as well as the projector screen for the audio and visual portions of the performance that there’s enough busyness to take in. It’s cluttered, but this seems to well represent the inside of the millennial’s mind.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography courtesy Feral Foxy Ladies & Kaleido Film Collective

I Would Like To Get To Know You

Part of VAULT Festival 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

We’ve Got Each Other
★★★½

VAULT Festival

The Vaults

Reviewed – 6 February 2019

★★★½

“Because O’Donnell proves he’s a ‘triple threat’, it’s hard not to want more than what we’re given”

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Alex Brenner

We’ve Got Each Other

Part of VAULT Festival 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com