Week 3 of the massive VAULT Festival comes with more theatre, more quirks and more fringe shows. Check out Part 1 of our selections for this week below!

As we’ve seen in Happy, literally anything and everything has the potential to become a musical, including this one act play about life after homelessness. Multi-award nominated Interval Productions proudly presents writer Rebecca Walker’s tale of an ex-teacher and an ex-junkie who met on a night bus during their long nights of homelessness, and their unexpected, explosive reunion one year on.

Riffing on themes of loneliness and issues of homelessness, Wretch was inspired by three months of interviews that Walker conducted with women at a day centre. Wretch has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from its Arts-Council-funded tour of drop-in centres, night shelters and drug rehabilitation units in 2015, and this production will feature songs by London-based indie pop band Eliza and the Bear. In its brief seventy minute runtime, Wretch will bring to audiences the true to life world of its characters, struggling to fight the world with high hopes and better dreams.

WRETCH plays at 18:10 at Brick Hall (The Vaults) from 8-12 Feb. Tickets available here

The Swarm by The Quorum

The Swarm narrates the story of the perilous journey of migrating honey bees through a city with their queen after she is deposed by her daughter and forced to leave the hive, taking half the colony with her. The bees will encounter deadly obstacles in their search for a new home, including a deadly extractor fan, a thunder storm and a fierce debate over two potential sites to build a hive.

This innovative 60 minute work is inspired by the sound and vibration of bees and their communication style, with a 9 piece choir led by the operatic queen bee backed up by a soundscape inspired by the urban environment, and will stretch the boundaries of choral music, voice and movement. A David Attenborough narrated documentary this is not, and if anything, will be like honey to the ears, exploring the swarming patterns and social organisations of these fuzzy yellow creatures.

The Swarm plays at the Cavern (The Vaults) at 19:30 from 8-12 Feb. Tickets available here.

I Need To Vent by Loren O’Brien

Making a name for herself with her dark comedy pieces, Loren O’Brien enters the VAULT Festival with I Need To Vent. Allie returns home from travelling the world to ‘find herself’, but when she returns to find her friends have moved on without her, she takes dark measures to become the centre of their lives again, even if it means pretending to be a little…crazy. Loren herself will be doing a comedy act the week after, so if you enjoyed this, check out her lighter side with Okie Dokie as well.