House of Blakewell to Present WE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY

Award-winning composer / performer duo Harry Blake and Alice Keedwell are delighted to announce their return to VAULT in 2015. Blake and Keedwell will open the festival with a one-night-only performance of HOUSE OF BLAKEWELL'S HOUSE PARTY. The acclaimed production, which began life with a sell-out run at VAULT 2014 sees the showtune-loving duo welcome audiences to their Peckham housewarming in an attempt to fit in. Wednesday 28 January will be the last ever chance to join the party.

From 25 February - 8 March, HOUSE OF BLAKEWELL will present WE CAN MAKE YOU HAP- PY. This brand new piece is a playful musical exploration of happiness, the industry sur- rounding it and what it means in 2015. Drawing on a range of scientific, economic, philo- sophical and spiritual texts and popular culture, Harry and Alice will visit topics as wide- ranging as mindfulness, mental health, capitalism, bereavement, middle-class guilt and the wedding industry. The show boasts song, dance and musical virtuosity with woodwind, loop pedal, tape dance and more. WE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY is created and performed by Harry Blake and Alice Keedwell, with music and lyrics by Harry Blake. It will run for two weeks in VAULT's brand new 180-seat Crescent, ahead of a 2015 tour.

HOUSE OF BLAKEWELL made their debut at Soho Theatre in May 2012 and took home the Craig Barbour Award for Songwriting. In 2014, their hit HOUSE PARTY began life with a sold-out run at VAULT Festival, before touring to packed houses at RichMix, Brighton Fringe, Latitude and Bestival. They have also delighted audiences at Leicester Square Theatre, Ed- inburgh Underbelly, the King's Head, Theatre503, The Yard Theatre and the Musical Comedy Awards with their unique blend of topical, eighty-three percent original show tunes, arias, power ballads and more.

Harry Blake is a composer, songwriter and musical theatre lover, known chiefly for his remixes of Wagner's DAS RHEINGOLD and Mozart's DON GIOVANNI (Soho Theatre) and his chamber opera MANGA SISTER (Time Out Pick of 2011). He trained at the Royal Academy of Music. Harry won a Musical Theatre Network Award for THE FUTURE FOR BEGINNERS (Edin- burgh Fringe 2014). He has composed for the Hampstead, Almeida, Arcola and Soho The- atres and Southwark Playhouse, and his musicals have been developed at the Young Vic and National Theatre Studio.

Alice Keedwell is an actor, actor-musician and singer. She trained at Guildford School of Acting. She recently workshopped ALBION at the Bush Theatre, and theatre credits include THE ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS (Castle Theatre, Wellingborough, dir. Luke Shep- pard) and in WIND IN THE WILLOWS (Lord Chamberlain's Men). Alice has also appeared in

productions at the Soho Theatre, Union Theatre, Upstairs at the Gatehouse and on TV for Paramount Comedy Shortcuts.

WE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY is created in collaboration with Director Valentina Ceschi (multi- award-winning Dancing Brick), Choreographer Jennifer Fletcher (The Mostly Everything People) and Designer Gabriella Slade (shortlisted for JMK Award 2014, RSC Assistant Design- er Scheme 2013 & 2014 and Linbury Prize 2013). HOUSE OF BLAKEWELL is produced by Vicky Graham for Vicky Graham Productions (BREEDERS, St. James Theatre).

Photo by Richard Davenport

To post a comment, you must register and login.