Vault Festival unveils its boldest line-up yet (Picture: Vault Festival)

Like the Fringe, but crammed into underground vaults (get it?): meet Vault Festival, two months of theatre, cabaret, comedy and late-night tomfoolery which takes place below Waterloo Station.

Metro.co.uk are thrilled to exclusively launch the festival’s first ever comedy line-up, together with the most extensive, boundary-pushing and just plain bonkers immersive theatre scheduling the capital has ever seen.

The 2018 edition of London’s biggest arts festival – which kicks off 24 January – is the most varied yet, with 100s of acts performing day and night in historical tunnels which lay beneath the commuter trains.

These cavernous spaces make for a worthwhile visit whether you’re a Vaults ticket holder or not (although show tickets are a steal so there’s no excuse).

The late-opening bar serves good beer, wine, cocktails, and food to enjoy while inhaling the loudest, proudest arts and culture environment in the capital. This is where performers of all creeds go to hang out on their downtime, or perform in burgeoning new shows.

Vault’s restless line-up means acts play late into the night, who are favourites from TV, or uncovered names from the London arts scenes; the beauty of the festival is that it brings all that goodness into one.

Performance spaces intertwine from the main bar area; there’s the feel of being at an underground rave, with the safety of the licensed (legal!) bar.

The immersive theatre

This series of rambling underground Victorian passageways naturally cry out for immersive theatre. This year the line-up is more extensive than ever, and immersive theatre is evolving, now that escape rooms and virtual reality have become popular pursuits too.

So Unit 9, Vaults’s immersive theatre hub, incorporates theatre that asks more of its audience. Rather than just be acted ‘to’, audiences will be involved in the shows themselves, playing interactive games in one experience, while in another, guests attempt to escape from a nautical-themed disaster room.

Aerial shows are on the bill (Picture: Vault)

As guests play interactive games to answer clues and riddles, actors will dance and act as new works of film disorientate audiences across an eight-week immersive arts agenda like London has never seen before.

It’ll be the audience’s work in Revolution, a new immersive play, to save the world from a dystopian future as ticket-holders are cast against each other so solve a puzzle to save humanity.

In The Lifeboat, the audience must work together to delve for clues in order to escape from the doomed hold of an old ship.

Another immersive show, Rubber, takes audiences (virtually) onto the nearby streets of Waterloo for a driving experience, and on a similar, but darker, theme, Wrecked chillingly unveils the moments straight after a car crash.

Neverland – by the people that made last year’s hit Great Gatsby show – return with a show adapted from the Peter Pan story, and for more ambitious physical, aerial stunt show, try Becoming Shades.

At weekends, Vault LATES carry the party into the early hours, and there’s an anti-Valentine’s Bleeding Heart Ball. When you see the space, you’ll understand why being at the Vault festival after hours makes sense. The space becomes a mesmerising haunt of the macabre.

The comedy

New for 2018 is a punchy comedy line-up, headlined by celebrated names Joe Lycett, Bridget Christie, Richard Gadd, Phil Wang and and panel show favourite, James Acaster.

Audience interaction is encouraged (Picture: Vault Festival)

Recommended names on the comedy bill include Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Adam Riches, Sheeps, The Pretend Men, Funny Women Awards, Jordan Brookes, The Pin, Luke Kempner, Will Andrews, Jon Pointing, Phoebe Walsh, Johnny White Really-Really, Steen Raskopoulos, Christopher Bliss, David Elms, Mat Ewins and Adam Riches.

Vault Festival 2018 runs 24 January – 18 March. The line-up can be viewed, and tickets can be purchased, by visiting the official website.