This must be one of London’s most interesting arts venues – a series of hidden underground vaults beneath Waterloo station.
Finding the venue
As directed, we took Exit One from the station and turned right, followed the narrow footpath alongside the taxi road and stepped down into the graffiti tunnel. It was an adventure just getting there.
The Vaults
The box office desk is long and open and very informal. We were directed down a wide tunnel – past closed doors to the various performance spaces – until we reached the bar. This is a large room with staff behind an impossibly high bar which gives it an old fashioned saloon feeling. The food stall made it feel like the street. The ceiling is a confusion of old pipes and here and there odd things are suspended – like a large wooden train.
The music is loud. It is dark. The seating comprises loosely arranged benches of various heights into large open squares. At the end of the room is a small stage area – no doubt for use at a later event. We sat and chatted for a while, sipping on red wine (£3.50) and commented that it was the perfect antidote to a day of London tube strikes.
Shrine of Innocence
At 7pm we were ushered into The Pit. Another cave-like space (bare brick walls and a concrete floor with a small elevated area). It was made all the more mysterious by the almost religious music that was playing. I doubt the place will hold more than 80 people – again on those thin wooden benches. I was glad the performance was only to last for an hour.
This is a series of three dances of different couples. The first is a man building a shrine to a woman. He is creepily dark and obsessive – even smelling her clothes. His model woman bends like a lifeless doll entirely in his control as he holds her and throws her about as he dances to moody saxophone-heavy jazz. The choreography was breath taking and watching them move was strangely mesmerising.
Then it was like we are stepping back in time and watching them as they become a couple. She is full of life and taunting him with her playful, flirtatious and seductive moves. The sound track was a very smoky “Your heart is black as night”. The final pairing was – I guess (it is open to interpretation of course) - an even earlier time when a young girl learns to move like a woman by emulating another very confident and beautiful dancer. Her journey to the loss of innocence.
It was dark, disturbing yet quietly powerful and totally absorbing. Even for someone who isn’t particularly partial to physical theatre or dramatic dance. Such a rich and complex story, so full of emotion yet told entirely without dialogue. My friend thought it was captivating - and we talked about our various interpretations for some considerable time afterwards.
The Shed
This required a major mood shift. Two women acted out a simple story of Barbara – who escapes from her wild house parties to her shed. Here she keeps boxes of memories of her past relationship with Kev who bought her a small blue fridge. There are comic interactions with next door neighbours and memories of school friends – all touchingly played out with very few props and some cracking accents and characterisations. A story about getting over a lost love by shutting oneself away to forget, reflect and heal and then finally picking up the threads of life and rejoining the human race perhaps?
Both performances made a strong impression. They left a not unpleasant after-taste – like eating an unusual but intriguing and rich new food. They will remain etched onto my mind’s eye for a while to come. I’m still thinking about the other possible interpretations…
Tickets to the combined performance are £12.50 and it runs until 8th February.
http://www.the-vaults.org/#!vault-festival-2014/c1b9j
http://www.changingspacestheatre.com/#/projects/4553388325
https://www.thevaultfestival.com/shed/
