Vashon’s critically acclaimed physical theater company, UMO Ensemble, will explore the thoughts, themes, characters and images inspired by the writing of Samuel Beckett with “Fail Better” — their love letter to Samuel Beckett.

The show will be performed at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 22, 2 p.m. Saturday, July 24 and 6 p.m. Sunday, July 25, outdoors at Open Space for Arts & Community.

Audience members in attendance will meet five archetypal Beckett characters who tackle love, life and death in typical UMO fashion: with humor, metaphor, stillness, and visceral bawdiness. The performance takes the ensemble into the air on aerial ropes, balancing on a giant sculptural teeter-totter and reacting in a sonic world that is the imagined inside of Beckett’s head.

UMO is staging “Fail Better” as part of Vashon Repertory Theatre’s first annual Vashon Theatre Fest. This year’s Fest will fill two summer weekends in indoor and outdoor locations. The Fest includes Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” “Bo-Nita” and readings by original Northwest regional playwrights.

Tickets for individual performances or full weekend passes are on sale now at vashonrepertorytheatre.org.