HELLSCREEN Comes to the VAULT Festival Tonight

Firehouse Creative Productions and Double Barrel Productions present HELLSCREEN by Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm and Rachel Parish as part of the VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN, running tonight 25th February - Sunday 8th March 2015, 8pm. Press night: Thursday 26th February, 8pm.

What were you born to do? Who could you be if you lived without limitation? What would you do if you had the opportunity to find out, once and for all?

HELLSCREEN is a sensual, exciting and terrifying production which fuses film, animation, music, immersive design and theatre. Inspired by a classic Japanese horror story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and set in the contemporary London art world, HELLSCREEN follows an artist, his daughter and a collector on their descent into hellish greed and obsession. It explores the artistic drive to create, the commoditisation of art and the rules of basic human relationships.

Renowned performance artist Jonny Woo (Gay Bingo, Bistrotheque) plays Frank Holt, an extremely talented contemporary artist whose horrifically dark personality makes him an outcast in already dark circles. His daughter, Amy (Vanessa Schofield) is the only thing that brings him a sense of joy.

Playwright Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm (You Once Said Yes) and director Rachel Parish (Soon Until Forever) pair up to create a modern-day take on this Japanese story. Pulling from true stories of lust and intrigue, HELLSCREEN is a unique portrayal of the highs and lows of the artist's drive to create.

Supporting Firehouse Creative Productions' mission to develop contemporary performance for curious audiences through innovative collaborative practice, the exciting creative team includes designer Ana Ines Jabares Pita (Idomeneus and winner of the Linbury Prize, 2013), filmmaker Susan Luciani (Double Barrel Productions) and composer Joe Hastings (Hunger).

HELLSCREEN runs Wednesday 25th February - Sunday 8th March 2015, 8pm Saturday and Sunday matinees, 3.30pm as part of the 2015 VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN. Runtime: 80 minutes. Tickets are available from www.vaultfestival.com.

The Vaults are located underneath Waterloo station (on the Northern, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines). Leave Waterloo Station via Exit 1. Turn right onto Station Road Approach and keep on the right hand side of the road. Walk all the way to the bottom of the road and go down the first set of stairs you come to and turn right at the bottom of the stairs. The entrance to the VAULT Festival is 10 meters down the graffiti tunnel on the right hand side.

Firehouse Creative Productions - Firehouse Creative Productions develops and produces new performance for stage and public space through collaborative practice. Their motto is Stories, Collaboration, Innovation: making global local through live and digital performance. They create interactive performance events internationally, with each project inspired by distinct communities. Their work is characterised by multi-layered projects that create inviting spaces for artists and audiences to meet and play in the dreaming, making, and experiencing stages of performance making.

Firehouse was founded in 2010 and has created ten projects spanning stage productions such as Superjohn, a play for families about child leukaemia, and Stella, a fusion of theatre, live music and dance exploring the quest for love through contemporary true stories and Goethe's original, interventions such as StoryStation, an interactive digital storysharing installation, and themed seasons such as The Romanian Season, which featured six previously un-translated plays at the New Diorama.

In April 2013 Firehouse presented a project at Theatre503 that showcased their production Soon Until Forever, a new play by Shireen Mula developed through their Big Idea workshop on belief, alongside a programme of events, discussions and workshops that investigated contemporary British theatre practices in a wider European context called All Change: New Horizons in British Theatre. Their second iteration of All Change grew into a multi-location international festival in October 2014, running simultaneously in London at the Lyric Hammersmith, as well as with partner organisations in New York and New Orleans, USA; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Augsburg, Germany.

Morgan Lloyd Malcom - Theatre credits include: Belongings (Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios, Whatsonstage.com Best New Play Award Nominee, Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Nominee); Above And Beyond (Corinthia Hotel Artist in Residence); You Once Said Yes (Underbelly and Roundhouse / LIFT, Fringe First Winner and Total Theatre Award Winner); Jack and The Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Aladdin, Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Platform and Epidemic (Old Vic Tunnels); Health Wealth (OldVicNewVoices); Suddenlossofdignity.com and Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover (Bush); Fanny and Madge, Maybe We Could, 13 O'Clock, The Receptionists and TimeTripppers (Trippplicate; various Edinburgh and London fringe venues). Television credits include: School Of Comedy (E4) and Hotel Trubble (BBC1). Current projects include: The Many Whoops Of Whoopstown, a Latititude and Lyric Hammersmith Commission For LookLeftLookRight; Robin Hood for Bolton Octagon; and an as yet untitled project for Clean Break in 2013/14. Look Left Look Right Writer in Residence. Artist in Residence at The Corinthia Hotel, London.

Rachel Parish - Rachel Parish works regularly in both the US and the UK as a theatre director, dramaturg, community organiser, academic author, conference contributor, and artist in residence. Productions include: All Change Festival and Soon Until Forever (Theatre503); Superjohn (UK tour); Caucasian Chalk Circle (Royal and Derngate); Arabian Nights (CityLit); Much Ado About Nothing (The Scoop); Elevator (New Diorama Theatre); Stella (Douglass Theatre, Southwark Playhouse); The Alchemist (Hoxton Hall); I Confess (international tour); and StoryStation (international exhibits). Her work has been seen throughout the UK, in Ireland, Beijing, the USA and Gabon with support from organisations including Arts Council England, UNESCO, and the AHRC. Rachel trained at the National Theatre Studio and Central School of Speech and Drama. Recent academic posts include lecturing, workshops and performances at University of Georgia, Macon State University, and Georgia College and State University and at the Crossroads Writers Conference at Mercer University.

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