• Advertise
  • Request Review
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy
  • Login

Theatre Bubble

The UK Theatre Network

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Opinions
  • Interviews
  • Guides
  • Ed Fringe

Shows on the Rise at VAULT Festival 2018: The Thing That Came to Dinner

January 23, 2018 by Tom Bailey Leave a Comment

The VAULT Festival is coming to town! From January 24th to March 18th, over three hundred new shows explode across a festival of festivals in their Waterloo home. With new venues, new bars, new food and plenty of surprises, VAULT 2018 is the biggest, fairest platform in London for artists to present innovative, daring work. Here we have a chat with the team behind The Thing That Came to Dinner and the bizarre gap between genres they aim to fill.

The Thing That Came To Dinner is a horror comedy about the monsters around your own dinner-table. And also from space. In a snowbound manor-house an elegant dinner party is in full swing. But one guest is intent on more than just sophisticated repartee – one guest was not invited at all – one guest is a flesh-eating shape-changing space-beast from beyond the stars!

In this pleasant drawing-room, these charming revellers are not who they seem. Is it because they are desperate for social advancement? Is it because they have illicit histories that they wish to keep hidden? Or is it because they are a bloodthirsty world-conquering tentacular horror from another world!?

As suspicions rise, as layer upon layer of deceit and villainy is exposed, as guests are replaced, one by one, with homicidal alien doppelgangers, these high-society bon-viveurs turn against each other with brutal witticisms, savage quips and razor-sharp mots juste. Will anyone survive this evening of refined company and light entertainments? And if so, will what survives – be human…?

A chaotic farce where 80s sci-fi horror meets poised fin-de-siecle drawing-room comedy, The Thing That Came To Dinner is an absurd romp with cosmically pessimistic implications.  Mannered naturalism gives way to impressionistic character doubling, clowning, puppetry and even song and dance, as the fragile reality of the play peels back and forth, and the elusive nature of identity slips further and further beyond our grasp. This is a play that tells a thrilling and hilarious story, and goes further, to touch on something more profound – at once extremely clever and very stupid.

The Thing That Came to Dinner is on at Vault Festival from the 7th-9th Feb at 18:15. Tickets and more information can be found here.

Tom Bailey

Author: Tom Bailey

Tom is a theatre maker and writer based in London, England. He covers news and interviews for Theatre Bubble.
T: Twitter F: Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Spotlight

Join the discussion Cancel reply

NEWS / Living Record Festival of digital arts announces programme

Living Record Festival is a month-long Digital Arts Festival curating and presenting over 40 original pieces from a range of [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Open Bar on A ChristMESS CAROL

Tell us about Open Bar Theatre and also how you came about and how the name came about. OBT: Open Bar [Read More]

NEWS / Ayomide Adegun awarded The Luke Westlake Scholarship 2020

22 year old South Londoner Ayomide Adegun is currently in his 2nd year of the BA Acting course at Royal [Read More]

NEWS / Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels announced

A new play repurposed for online viewing from the creative team behind Scrounger, and the first of the Finborough Theatre’s [Read More]

NEWS / Crimes Against Christmas becomes an audio advent calendar

Typically at this time of year theatre company New Old Friends would have just finished an Autumn tour and be [Read More]

Top Posts & Pages

  • 10 Tips to Help You Prepare for Your Reality TV Auditions
  • Writing the Perfect Press Release
  • 5 Stage Elements to Consider for a Rousing Theatrical Production
  • Parliament Square at the Bush Theatre
  • Interview with Alan Flanagan, writer-performer of Bingo
  • Katy Owen: Auditioning for Oxford School of Drama
  • Katy Owen: How to Apply to Drama Schools*
  • The Pay’s the Thing: Making a Living as an Actor
  • Katy Owen: LAMDA Audition (First Round)
  • How to Applying for Arts Grants and Funding
  • Tom Bailey

    Tom Bailey
    Editor

  • January 23rd, 2018
  • comment iconNo Comments
  • Facebook1TweetLinkedInEmail

    Newsletter

    Enjoyed what you've read? Get even more great content directly to your inbox - Completely Free

    About Theatre Bubble

    Theatre Bubble is the news, review and blogging site created by Blue Pie Media and run by a dedicated team of outstanding editors and writers: we're always looking for new contributors - to find out more click here.

    Contact Us

    News: news@theatrebubble.com
    Reviews: reviews@theatrebubble.com
    Website: webmaster@theatrebubble.com

    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2021 · Blue Pie Media

    Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

    Email sent!