A celebration of creativity in difficult times and developed in response to the cancellation of VAULT Festival 2022, Come What May Festival is a new venture for Park Theatre which aims to support emerging and experienced, local and UK-wide talent.
Offering audiences a diverse range shows and styles, the festival includes stories about disability, queer culture, family, race, climate change, love, parenthood, addiction, sexual violence, privilege, childhood trauma and the experience of working-class communities. Each week will be a carefully curated mix of dramatic and comic, poignant and madcap, and includes Friday and Saturday late night cabarets and spoken word.
The festival rehomes 12 VAULT Festival 2022 shows, including the London premiere of two productions developed with Northern Stage: Ankles, A Book of Spells (20 – 21 May) casts away victim-blaming culture, born from teenage girls’ experiences of gendered school uniform policies; and Mother’s Ruin (20 – 21 May) is a funny and heart-breaking musical exploration of motherhood.
Grappling with tough topics, Mediocre White Male (16 – 21 May) is about feeling confused and left behind by a progressive agenda in a small community, 4 (16 – 21 May) is a one-woman show about sexuality and identity in the wake of sexual assault, and Dolly (23 – 28 May) deals with childhood trauma in adulthood.
Bringing some comedy to the festival, POLICE COPS: Badass Be Thy Name (9 – 14 May) is a kitchen sink drama that turns into a vampire-slaying horror epic, complete with a 90’s rave soundtrack, and Pickle (2 – 7 May) is the story of a Jewish woman still living at home in North-West London, dominated by overbearing parents, traditions, and expectations. From Bruntwood Prize-longlisted writer Hugo Timbrell and director Nikhil Vyas, My Life as a Cowboy (24 – 27 May) sees gay 17-year-old lifeguard Conor given the chance to prove himself to the world – through the local talent show, Croydon People’s Day. A joyous new comedy about friendship, glory, Shania Twain and what happens when you embrace your weird side.
Artist Director Jez Bond said: “We firmly believe that the sector will be enriched by disrupting the straight, male euro-centric lens which still dominates and, if anything, has been strengthened by the pandemic and the need across theatres to programme more mainstream, commercially driven work for financial reasons. In spite of those acute financial pressures which we are also experiencing, Park Theatre believes it is important to do everything in our power to support these artists and to serve our whole community.”
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