Review: HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, VAULT FestivalFebruary 24, 2023Ultimately, Hildegard von Bingen is incredibly confusing and very unsatisfying for those hoping to learn more about the brilliant woman that Hildegard was. As someone who studied her music and her life, I was hoping to see a more psychological look at the woman, not images of Hildegard curled up in a ball muttering to herself.
Review: BEN VAN DER VELDE: FABLEMAKER, VAULT FestivalFebruary 22, 2023When taking moments to pause from laughing at the quick and witty jokes, I found myself in awe of how easily Van der Velde was able to take what appeared to be random characters and put them together, creating a story about an underground fight ring that was being run by “The Last Remaining Briton,” Richard.
Review: HOUSE OF BURLESQUE: POLITITS, VAULT FestivalFebruary 16, 2023House of Burlesque: PoliTITS is, to quote the host, Lolo Brow ('Better than Lolo Self-Esteem') about 'Our two favourite things - Tits and the end of the world.' The goal of the show is to celebrate the history of burlesque through the lens of news, but not all the news as, 'We have an hour. We cannot cover everything.'
Review: BOORISH TRUMPSON, VAULT FestivalFebruary 13, 2023Boorish Trumpson is fun for the clowning aspects but fails to deliver on the political side. If this show was meant to give me the sense of frustration and confusion of the Boris and Trump era, it met its goal. I left Boorish Trumpson just as confused as I was by the time Trump and Boris themselves left office.
Review: POLICE COPS: BADASS BE THY NAME, VAULT FestivalFebruary 11, 2023Tommy Dixon is an ordinary man who wants to live an extraordinary life. He’s a telemarketer for a magazine company about tall things, his dad left him and his mother alone, and his stepfather talks to him with his butt. But Tommy’s life changes when he meets Father Badass, a priest at St. Bartholomew with a big secret - He’s a vampire hunter.
Review: VAULT FESTIVAL BIRTHDAY BASH, VAULT FestivalJanuary 30, 2023On Friday, January 27th, the VAULT Festival hosted its own VAULT Festival Birthday Bash, a 4 ½-hour party in The Flair Ground at The Vaults to celebrate the festival’s “decade of bold and original live performance.” The show’s description promised “breathtaking burlesque” and “outstanding circus” as well as a “Drag sensation” host, Rhyss Pieces.
Review: ALL FALLS DOWN, VAULT FestivalJanuary 28, 2023On the VAULT Festival’s website, All Falls Down is described with the keywords “horror,” “improv,” and “interactive.” Unfortunately, while the show was certainly improvised by the sole performer and interactive as it depended on its audience, it failed to bring horror to the VOID.
Review: ADAM WILLIS: JOSEPH, VAULT FestivalJanuary 28, 2023As someone who loves comedy and went to a Catholic school named after Saint Joseph, I immediately felt drawn to Adam Willis: Joseph. The VAULT Festival’s website stated that “Adam’s hilarious retelling of the Nativity story puts a dimly-lit spotlight on the Bible’s third-best carpenter; Joseph of Nazareth.”
Review: JOY, VAULT FestivalJanuary 26, 2023You enter the Cavern's space underneath an inflatable rainbow, with the performers greeting you with smiles and asking how you are. Some performers are hitting large balloons to each other across the space while others hand audience members pieces of paper, asking them to write down an embarrassing story to be put in a box.
Review: YOU SHALL NOT YASS, VAULT FestivalJanuary 26, 2023I have a confession to make - I have never been to a drag show. But, being quite a nerdy person, it was incredibly on brand that my first drag show would be You Shall Not Yass, a queer take on the Lord of the Rings franchise.
Review: DANIEL SLOSS: CAN'T, London PalladiumFebruary 4, 2023Daniel Sloss’s Can’t is a brilliant show that will have you crying tears of laughter while also making you think about the different controversies that divide our world.
Review: ALL IN GOOD TIME, VAULT FestivalJanuary 25, 2023All In Good Time is, to quote the show’s site, “a show about ADHD and time travel, complete with dodos, disco balls and ducks and whatever else we have time for” created by the Not-God Complex. The show itself aims to tell a story of time from a neurodivergent perspective, particularly focusing on ADHD through the trope of time travel.
2022 Year in Review: Kat Mokrynski's Best of 2022December 22, 2022Well, we may not know how we got here, but here we are - December 2022. Somehow, we are nearly at the end of the insane year that has been 2022. In this article, I take a look back at some of the highlights of my time in the theatrical worlds of New York and London these past twelve months.
Review: GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS, Richmond TheatreDecember 8, 2022Let me start this review with a confession - I’m an American who had never seen a panto before last night, and I had no idea what to expect from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I was aware of the tradition of the pantomime, but did not know the extent to how beloved it was in the UK. So it was with joy that I reviewed Goldilocks and the Three Bears