Gorgeous new one-woman musical In Clay makes for an excellent begin to the 2023 VAULT Festival
“It’s been so long, now who knows”
After an enforced absence of too a few years, it’s a pleasure to be again within the atmospheric environment of the VAULT tunnels and an actual thrill that my first present of 2023’s pageant was a cracker of a brand new musical in In Clay. Written by Jack Miles (music and lyrics) and Rebecca Simmonds (ebook and lyrics), this one-woman present epitomises what I really like about this pageant in the best way it could possibly convey undersung tales to mild (and even launch younger firms off-West End).
The topic right here is Marie-Berthe Cazin, a French ceramicist from the early a part of the 20 th century whose profession was intently entwined that that of her husband Michel. We meet her in her 40s as she waits for a go to by her buddy and fellow artist Henrietta Tirman and as she displays again on her life, we hint the event of her craft by means of artwork faculty and the way key relationships formed that journey – with Henrietta, with Michel and together with his father Jean-Charles, a famous artist himself who ran the varsity.
It’s a captivating story, mixing concepts about inventive approach with moments of private revelation (realising she’s not the one prodigious expertise on the planet is fantastically completed). And as she graduates, and marries, there’s a compelling have a look at marital dynamics as Michel’s star rises on the again of her ceramics expertise, her expertise exploited by him beneath the guise of societal pressures or maybe one thing extra. The begin of the Great War then sees private battles supplanted by outright battle and inevitably, a lot shatters.
Rosalind Ford is extremely partaking as Marie, honest and studious in detailing the position artwork has performed in her life and gorgeously ruminative on the realities of issues not essentially at all times going your method. She’s aided immeasurably by Miles’ rating which is a factor of magnificence because it marries jazz manouche with modern musical theatre with actual confidence. Melodic power shines by means of, toe-tapping rhythms abound and a contact of scatting permits Ford to additional impress. A fantastic begin to VAULT 2023.