Plays from Vault (Five)

This is the fifth anthology by Nick Hern Books comprising five of the ‘best’ plays from VAULT Festival, which took place early in 2020, before being untimely cut short by the COVID-19 lockdown.

The VAULT Festival stages some of the best and most diverse new writing in the country and this anthology represents just a tiny indication of this diversity. They are not all as original as each other, but they are all well-written, and whilst sometimes ‘raw’, there is much accomplishment in both their styles and their narratives.

Something Awful by Tatty Hennessy uses a well-trodden premise – teenage girls getting together to tell ghost stories – and mixes in a true-crime story as its inspiration. The play would be easy to stage and there is good dialogue for the female three-hander, however, it isn't particularly original in style or storyline.