Tag Archives: VAULT Festival 2020

In My Lungs The Ocean Swells

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

ReviewsAnnie May Fletcher, Grace Venning, In My Lungs The Ocean Swells, Jack Brownridge-Kelly, Jenny Walser, Joanna Nead, Joe Price, Katre, Maya Ellis, Natasha Kaeda, no more superheroes, Oliver Bryant, Tash Hyman, VAULT Festival 2020thespyinthestalls

In My Lungs The Ocean Swells

Cavern – The Vaults

Reviewed – 6th February 2020

★★★★

“there is also playful joy, real warmth, and two people who we immediately like”

This two hander is part tale of growing up, friendship and love, part lament for the fishing industry and part meditation on the sea. It is also wholly engaging and moving. Jenny Walser and Jack Brownridge-Kelly play friends since childhood who become something more. But what happens when one of you is embedded in a place, part of it, and the other needs to get away and build a different kind of life?

He comes from a long line of fishermen, men of the sea. He’s never wanted to do anything else. She wants more, something different, and moves to the city. But they are central to each other’s lives.

There is a mystical thread of ancient ocean running through the play, woven into the present day narrative; an underpinning of deep time carried by wave and storm. The plight of fishing communities in a time when fish stocks have shrunk dramatically, creating unemployment and despair is another thread, and there is also playful joy, real warmth, and two people who we immediately like.

Grace Venning’s simple and effective set is augmented by atmospheric lighting, designed by Joe Price and by Annie May Fletcher’s soundscape that somehow mixes with the noise of trains passing overhead to evoke the wash and rumble of the ocean. The Cornish coast comes alive in this setting, populated by a community we meet through the two character’s stories and memories, and their warm Cornish Accents. It’s a lovely piece of directing from Tash Hyman, using the traverse layout effectively and supporting her actors to create a believable world and tell a very human story.

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Oliver Bryant

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Since U Been Gone

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

ReviewsAmeena Hamid, Ameena Hamid Productions, Billy Barrett, HighTide, Nicol Parkinson, Pete Butler, Rebecca Crankshaw, Since U Been Gone, Teddy Lamb, The Queer House, The Vaults, VAULT Festival 2020, Zia Bergin-Hollythespyinthestalls

Since U Been Gone

Forge – The Vaults

Reviewed – 5th February 2020

★★★★

“The candypop colours fizz and zing and feel alive with fun and possibility”

Since U Been Gone is an autobiographical piece, in which Teddy Lamb intertwines stories of personal grief and loss with their own ongoing journey of self-discovery and self-definition. Teddy tells the story, with a live underscore performed on the electric guitar by Nicol Parkinson – quietly resplendent in a fabulous silver frock – with whom they share a stage. Teddy is a charming and engaging performer, with a gentle touch, who establishes a sense of warm intimacy with the audience immediately. Their words are direct and honest – as this type of show demands – but are occasionally shot through with beautiful currents of unexpected poetry. They are also, at points, extremely funny. (Put it this way, no-one who sees this show will every hear Eminem’s Lose Yourself in the same way again!).

Pete Butler (Set Designer) and Zia Bergin-Holly (Lighting Designer) have made the show look gorgeous, with a palette reminiscent of a 1960s TV set. The candypop colours fizz and zing and feel alive with fun and possibility, which serves at different times as both emphasis and ironic counterpoint to the narrative. For the most part, Billy Barrett (Director), wisely lets Teddy tell us the story without too much directorial intervention, and the few more obviously choreographed moments are well-placed, helping to give the words extra pace and texture when they need it. The live underscore is wonderful throughout, and the occasional moments in which Nicol Parkinson subtly sashays into the story, with a perfectly timed twang of the guitar, are just sublime.

This show is more than an intimate audience with an engaging performer, however. Teddy Lamb’s cleverly crafted text shines a light on the difficulties that beset gender-queer people on a daily basis in our society. Our non-binary and trans brothers and sisters encounter hostility and aggression in every aspect of their lives almost continually, and it behoves us all to step up and do better. One of the things we can all start with is pronoun awareness. Early on in the show, Teddy explains that, unlike the ‘strong, soft, comfortable’ feeling the pronoun ‘they’ gives, ‘he’ ‘feels like wearing an uncomfortable beige suit’. Which begs the question: why should anyone feel uncomfortable in what they wear, when clothes should allow us to dance?

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

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