VAULT at the Old Vic Tunnels

If ever there was a city that likes to embrace its seedy underground it’s London. And this time, I don’t mean suspect Soho back alleys, I mean literally subterranean. Beneath Waterloo Station. Taking a more literal meaning of the latest ‘underground’ scene, in the last year the Old Vic Tunnels have been transformed into a surprise cultural metropolis.

One of the best cultural discoveries I made last year, this labyrinthine collection of cavernous rooms sprawled beneath the streets has already housed art exhibitions, music gigs, cinema screenings and theatre and now it is being honoured with its own festival – the aptly titled VAULT.

Organised by Heritage Arts, VAULT is a brand new three-week arts festival from 9–26 February, boasting an impressive array of fringe theatre, film and music, letting you get deep down and dirty under the streets, just like the good ole days. Here’s a few ideas to guide you through your subterranean adventure, consider us your shining beacon through the darkness beneath.

Boutique cinema stalwarts, The flicker club will be in residence throughout the festival, screening movies adapted from short stories and novels with surprise celebrity guests providing a reading before their big-screen incarnation begins. With previous guests including Steven Berkoff, Joan Collins and Sir Ian McKellen, the flicker club have some impressive fans and as they team up with Hammer, of the Horror persuasion, we can safely presume the big guns will be out in the vaults. Expect to see Twins of Evil, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Plague of Zombies. They’ll probably play some films too.

Kindle Theatre unite live music and theatre, combining rock, metal and soul with text and poetry in their provocative retelling of Clytemnestra, the archetypal tale of a woman scorned, told through her loyal band, The Furies. In a unique reboot of Puccini’s La Bohème, Silent Opera truly work us out of our cultural comfort zones, combining silent disco with live opera. Smashing the classic into the high-tech using personal headphones to set opera loose in the tunnels alongside live performers, Silent Opera is one not to be missed.

Streetwise Opera, a company committed to involving those affected by homelessness in the arts, invite us into the magical world of folklore in Fables – A Film Opera, a selection of short films created by some of the UK’s leading composers and filmmakers and 125 performers who have experienced homelessness.

Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna present Brand New Love Story, a brand new love story based on  that all too familiar tale of boy meets girl and their ill-fated belief that maybe this one-night stand could last forever. Elsewhere, Pangolin’s Teatime will be on hand to satisfy the shadow puppet quota in your lives with bizarre cultural critique voiced by hundreds of puppets a-top a stick in The Great Puppet Horn.

And if the delights lurking in the vaults from 7pm each day (3pm at weekends) are not enough, Friday and Saturdays see VAULT open for Lates with live music and dancing until the wee hours. The B-Movie Ball, curated by Kenton Halliday features film screenings, live bands, dancers, DJs, magicians and tarot readings. And of course fancy dress.

If you still want more –  or you lose your mates in the tunnels – head to the welcoming bosom of late night cabaret in Baxter’s Basement where twisted hosts Baxter Valentine and Bobby Windeback will be entertaining until chucking out time. Entry is free when you buy a ticket for any show on Thursday and Saturday so it would be rude to head above ground before meeting this motley crew.

Not that we encourage debauchery but there’s something liberating about the dark, dank and humid and with such a diverse programme, consider VAULT a gentle nudge in the direction of the unknown – and the chance to be part of the underground movement when it was still, well, relatively underground.

Tickets start at £5. For full details of the VAULT programme visit the website.

VAULT takes place from Thursday 9 to Sunday 26 February at:

The Old Vic Tunnels
Leake Street
Waterloo
SE1 8SW