This Must Be The Place
by Brad Birch and Kenneth Emson
Vault Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN
Wednesday 8 th February – Sunday 12th February 2017
In an exhilarating first time collaboration between Pinter Commission winning Brad Birch and BAFTA-nominated Kenneth Emson, This Must Be The Place makes its London premiere at Vault following an acclaimed debut performance at Latitude Festival 2016. The production is staged by Poleroid Theatre – the company behind triple Off West End Award nominated Free Fall by Vinay Patel and the nationwide new writing platform Write It: Mic It.
Adam, a young Londoner in the midst of crisis, desperately tries for a clean break from technology, love, connectivity and the pressures of city life in an attempt to find home. A million miles away, or perhaps not so far, two friends try to start again in the big smoke as fugitives from their problems, but find they are still waiting on the margins.
Two short ballads about being alive and not… This Must Be The Place is a story about migration, missed connections and life on the edge of respectability. It’s about where we are now and whether we are really living. It is both frantic and funny, quiet and thoughtful, sometimes bleak, but never without a sense of hope.
This Must Be The Place expertly interweaves these two stories together but director Justin Audibert also leaves audiences to make their own connections between the plays and character’s stories – are they intertwined or aren’t they? The stories are brought to life by a talented ensemble of four actors using Poleroid’s trademark theatre combined with live gig.
Kenneth Emson and Brad Birch put the financial and emotional stress of young adults in the UK today in the spotlight. This Must Be The Place seeks to explore whether we can truly cope with the pressure of expectation, success, forced connectivity and an overload of information in our technological age, or if this is significantly contributing to mental instability and displacement.
Director Justin Audibert comments, Kenneth and Brad are two of the most urgent yet humane playwrights working today. Their work explores the dark undercurrents of life in the 21st century but does so from the perspective of those on the margins whose stories we rarely get to hear. They are also artists whose work challenges the boundaries of what the live experience of theatre can be.
Four outstanding performances from Mike Noble, Feliks Mathur, Molly Roberts and Hamish Rush … This Must Be The Place is a masterful look at life’s transitions and the connections that make us who we are (A Younger Theatre).
Title This Must Be The Place by Brad Birch and Kenneth Emson
Performance Dates Wednesday 8 th – Sunday 12th February 2017, 7:45pm
Running time 60 minutes
Twitter @PoleroidTheatre, @VaultFestival, #ThisMustBeThePlace
Website http://www.poleroidtheatre.co.uk/
Writers Brad Birch and Kenneth Emson
Director Justin Audibert
Producer Poleroid Theatre
Assistant Producer Corinne Salisbury
Location VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN
A Year From Now
VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN
Wednesday 25th January – Sunday 29th January 2017
14 VOICES. 5 ACTORS. ONE YEAR.
This new production from RedBellyBlack Theatre is a fascinating combination of verbatim and physical theatre, using movement and audio narrative, that asks 14 people ‘where do you see yourself a year from now?’. Children, nonagenarians, new parents and trauma survivors talk to the audience about their perspective on the passing of time.
Following a successful run at Tristan Bates Theatre, A Year From Now returns to the stage with new answers to some seemingly simple questions. What do you make time for? What has been the time of your life? Are you where you thought you’d be a year ago?
From the four year-old who already knows that he is destined to be a racing car driver to the ninety-four year-old who is still driving, every story told in this show is moving, exciting, hilarious and disturbing. Follow the fears of new parents. Be blown away by the fifteen year-old who understands why bullying happens. Fall in love with the comedian who finds joy in all things, even after losing a close family member. Have your eyes opened by a young woman with a lifethreatening condition who risks everything to become a mother.
A Year From Now is about the importance and power of positivity. These raw, real-life stories encourage us to take ownership of our time and savour every minute. Five actors from various creative backgrounds guide us through these answers in a visually stunning verbatim performance.
…we have been presented with a playful and unfetishized look into the very unexceptional world we so regularly seek to leave behind… This is Alecky Blythe stripped bare, and it is all the more refreshing for it (LondonTheatre1).
A Year From Now was co-created by RedBellyBlack’s Artistic Director Kate Goodfellow (Winner of Best Female Performer, Brighton Fringe) and Director Vicki Baron.
The production is in partnership with mental health charity MIND, who are changing the national perspective on mental health. RedBellyBlack will be collecting donations and promoting the incredible work of this charity.
Title A Year From Now
Performance Dates Wednesday 25th – Sunday 29th January 2017, 6.10pm
Running time 60 minutes
Twitter @Red_Belly_Black, @VaultFestival, #AYearFromNow
Trailer https://youtu.be/GcCRKmTQSpM
Kate Goodfellow Choreographer/Producer/Co-Creator
Vicki Baron Director/ Co-Creator
Peter Collington Assistant Producer
Abi Toghill Lighting Designer and Operator
Cast
Kate Goodfellow
Clementine Mills
Christopher Montague
Oscar Scott-White
Jessica Warshaw
Location VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN