Silk Road (How To Buy Drugs Online)
January 24th – January 28th, VAULT Festival
Alex Oates’ Silk Road, the first play to be funded by cryptocurrency Bitcoin, returns after a triumphant Edinburgh Fringe Festival with its London premiere, opening at VAULT Festival 2018, before touring to Live Theatre, Newcastle in February.
★★★★★ “new writing at its best, well-staged and brilliantly acted” The Reviews Hub
“How is it delivered? That’s the best bit! Royal Mail. Postman Pat brings your smack to your door with a smile and his black and white cat is none the wiser”
Bruce is nineteen, unemployed and living with his Nan. A struggling young Geordie tech-head, he’s the unlikeliest international criminal mastermind you can imagine. But sucked into an underworld dark web of new-age pirates, local gangsters and tea-cosies, it isn’t long before Bruce discovers how easy it is to buy narcotics online.
Following a call-out on the real Silk Road forums for contributions to the original production’s crowdfunding campaign, an anonymous donor donated two bitcoin. Bitcoin value has since gone up, and plummeted, and gone up again. Two bitcoin are currently worth $29,078 (about £21,405), and playwright Alex Oates will now be funding the entire production with cryptocurrency.
★★★★★ “theatre at its very best (…) smart, humorous and powerfully touching” FringeGuru
Shrapnel Theatre returns to VAULT Festival following two smash-hit years with Underground and The Litterati, with the former transferring to Brits off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in June 2017.
Alex Oates has been shortlisted for both the Old Vic 12 and long listed for the Bruntwood Prize, and Papatango Prize with previous work including Pig and Rules for Being a Man (UK tours). Dominic Shaw is a director from Jersey, and currently associate director for Kinky Boots in the West End. Previous directing work includes A Memory for Forgetting (Arcola) and Fan Fiction (Other Palace).
Actor Josh Barrow is a member of the National Youth Theatre and has worked on the Royal Court Theatre’s Open Court Project 2016, and is TriForce’s Monologue Slam National Champion 2017