The evenings may be dark and gloomy, but sparks of creativity are starting to ignite in the arches beneath Waterloo station. Since 2012, these graffiti-covered tunnels have been home to Vault Festival, a London-based fringe event that gives a platform to emerging theatre-makers and comedians. For two months at the start of every year, this space is divided into small theatre venues, where innovative artists can test out material or give preview performances of new work. Here, performers can hone their craft over a shorter, less expensive run before taking their work onwards, often to the Edinburgh Fringe or nationwide tours.
That is, until a worrying halt in proceedings over the last few years. In March 2020, the festival was forced to grind to a halt early as concerns about the coronavirus became real. The following two years, with new variant worries and a still-fragile theatre industry, the festival was cancelled. Vault co-founder Mat Burtcher told me in summer 2020 that it had been “the only sensible choice”, but it also felt like a worrying prophecy for the fringe theatre scene. As the Bunker Theatre in Southwark was closed due to redevelopment and the price of getting to the Edinburgh Fringe soared, artists questioned whether small-scale theatre was viable anymore.
