Choose Your Own Documentary will be at the Edinburgh Fringe 2013 from 31st July until the 26th August at the Gilded Balloon.
Tickets are on sale from 10th May. For full information and booking details click here. All previous performances have sold out, so we recommend booking early.
A found diary, a film crew and an incredible true story. Inspired by the Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 1980’s, you determine Nathan’s fate in a unique interactive experience. Every twist and turn is in your hands. With over 1500 versions and multiple endings, where will the story lead? Who can help you discover the truth behind the diary’s pages? You decide.
Co-commissioned by Southbank Centre and supported by Arts Council England.
“Penlington’s fusion of wit, storytelling and visuals are garnering critics’ plaudits and attention” - Time Out
**** Kate Copstick, Scotsman (on Nathan Penlington’s Uri & Me)
“Uniquely immersive and human experience” – Evnt
Dates: 31st July to 26th August (Not 14th)
Tickets: £8-£11 (Previews 31st July to 2nd Aug - £6)
Show starts at 1.30pm at Gilded Balloon Teviot, and runs between 75-90mins depending on the choices you make.
Venue box office: 0131 622 6552
To book online click here.
Created and developed in collaboration with Fernando Gutierrez De Jesus, Nick Watson and Sam Smaïl.
Choose Your Own Documentary has been co-commissioned by Southbank Centre, London. Initial development supported by Out Of Print.
* Choose Your Own Adventure® is now a registered trademark of Chooseco, LLC, which is not associated in any manner with Choose Your Own Documentary, or CYOD Ltd.
April 25th 2013
We know many London based people couldn’t get tickets for the show at the Southbank Centre in November, so we’re putting on a one off performance at the Hackney Picturehouse on April 25th. We’re looking forward to sharing the show with you again.
Tickets are only £6, we strongly suggest booking in advance!
Book online here or call the box office on 0871 902 5734
Show starts at 8pm.
Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare Street, London, E8 1HE
May 15th 2013
The Norfolk & Norwich Festival is offering you the chance to see two of the best live literature shows on the same night for the price of one with this very special double bill. We’ll be showing Choose Your Own Documentary alongside Your New Favourite Poet by the acclaimed Luke Wright.
Tickets are £12 and can be booked here
First show starts at 7.30pm
Norwich Arts Centre, St. Benedict’s Street, Norwich, NR2 4PG.
We’re excited to announce that we are taking Choose Your Own Documentary to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013 from 31st July until 26th August.
Tickets will go on sale soon. If you want to be among the first to know when that happens please join our mailing list and you can make sure you get tickets for the date you want. Click here to sign up.
On the 6th April I’ll be reading some new work inspired by the Cut-Up technique discovered by Brion Gysin and developed by William Burroughs. It is a fantastic line up organised by Joe Ambrose, with a diverse range of writers, artists and film makers showing throughout the night.
Full information and ticket booking can be found on the Horse Hospital website - click here.
Saturday March 9th - SXSW 2013, Austin, Texas. 2-4pm.
We are very excited to have been chosen by Hackney House to showcase Choose Your Own Documentary at the incredible SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, on March 9th.
Presented by ITV New this one off performance of Choose Your Own Documentary embodies the core spirit of SXSW - innovation, interaction and imagination.
So, SXSWers and Austin dwellers come and find us at Hackney House Austin on 6th Street for a special FREE viewing.
Hackney House Austin
119 W 6th St
Austin, TX 78701
To reserve your FREE ticket click here.
chooseyourowndocumentary:
Our friends at Visual Baker have just released a beautifully conceived, visually stunning interactive adaptation of Edward Packard’s classic Choose Your Own Adventure book ‘Underground Kingdom’.
Dr. Vivaldi has discovered a bottomless crevasse and disappeared into it…You are part of an…
We were very pleased that the first run of Choose Your Own Documentary in November 2012 received a range of previews and features:
on radio - the BBC World Service
in print - Time Out, Metro, Scout London
and online - Time Out, Spoonfed, Londonist, We Heart, Evnt, Exeunt, The Cultural Exposé, and Popshot.
It means a lot to us that we’ve made a show that people are genuinely excited by - hopefully we get to share it again with new audiences soon. Until then here are some things written about the show to wet your appetite.
“Anyone who took GCSE drama can vouch that learning lines isn’t easy. But it’s a tad trickier when the show you’re rehearsing has multiple endings, hundreds of possible narratives and is completely different each night. Acclaimed poet and storytelling comedian Nathan Penlington has set himself that task” - Time Out
“By his own admission, the incredibly talented storyteller Nathan Penlington likes to make shows about his various obsessions; and lucky for us, one of them is the Choose Your Own Adventure books” - Spoonfed
“Funny, heart-warming, and utterly bizarre – there’s very few people today pushing the envelope of stand-up, performance and documentary making quite like this… Nathan Penlington really is a name to watch” - We Heart
“More than two decades after he read his first Choose Your Own Adventure novel, Penlington has created a live theatre-come-film-come-comedy-come-spoken word show which uses the same format…It sounds fun, but potentially a bit gimmicky – until you hear the story behind it” - Scout London
“The dual narrative of his own struggles with growing up and the mystery surrounding the unhappiness expressed in the pages of the diary turn what could be a voyeuristic exercise into a uniquely immersive and human experience. Not only are you part of an audience Choosing Your Own Adventure, you’re doing it in the knowledge that your decisions will reap meaningful and fascinating rewards” - Evnt
“Alongside the large debt it owes to Packard and the Choose Your Own Adventure format, Choose Your Own Documentary has an element of the reality television phenomena to it – the X Factor of the documentary medium – as well as sharing features with the increasingly popular strain of interactive theatre” - Exeunt Magazine
“could this be the first X Factor/ theatre mashup?” - The Cultural Exposé
“We’re not going to pretend that we completely understand what this is all about, but what we do know is that it sounds fascinating”- Popshot
Team CYOD: Nathan, Nick, Sam and Fernando after the final November show.
The Brautigan Book Club is hosting an end of year party - So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away on November 27th at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
Headlining an eclectic homage of turns will be Martin Carr - of The Boo Radleys and bravecaptain fame. ‘Boo! Forever’.
I’ll be doing some Brautigan related magic. Not sure what that is yet. In the meantime here are some answers to some questions Martin asked me a while ago:
Ten Questions.Tickets are only £5. Snap one up quick.
Yesterday I made myself available all day to make decisions for other people. Big or small. Insignificant or monumental.
I’ll make the choice, all you have to do is follow it. It might lead to adventure, or at the least to variety. And don’t worry, anonymity guaranteed.
I made the request for people to send me their dilemma via Twitter, Facebook or email. And they did.
Choices and dilemmas ranged from what to have for breakfast, what bubble bath to use, what job to apply for, all the way to significant emotional decisions.
I am not qualified to give any guidance, other than as a person who has been through similar problems, my help is no more and no less than a concerned friend would give. But sometimes a complete stranger can help you step outside your own issue and see the answer that has perhaps been there all along. It’s all about putting people on the road to making choices, instead of remaining stranded in uncertainty.
The Don’t Choose Your Own Adventure day was fun and emotionally draining. I’ll be doing it again in a couple of weeks. I’ll announce the date on here and via Twitter and Facebook - so please follow if you want to join in next time.
Whatever you decide to do between then and now, good luck.
x
When Choose Your Own Adventure appeared in the early 80’s the chance to choose seemed like an adventure. Now we’re bombarded with choice.
Has your brain ever gone into melt down at a coffee shop? Tall? Grande? Extra shot? Half and half or soya milk?
Have you ever tried to simply order a sandwich and freaked out? 6 inch or a foot long? Hearty Italian or Honey oat? Regular or Mega? Toasted or cheese? Choosing between twenty types of salad and seven different sauces is enough to drive you over the edge.
Too much choice makes us dither, and the modern world doesn’t leave time for dithering. Just think how much precious time you’d save if someone else made those decisions for you.
The easy route is habit, but habit is the natural enemy of adventure. Habit saves time but leads to boredom. So what is the answer?
Don’t let dither rule your life, LET ME CHOOSE FOR YOU.
On Thursday 27th September, I will be available all day to make decisions for you. Big or small. Insignificant or monumental. Send me your dilemma - I’ll make the choice, all you have to do is follow it. It might lead to adventure, or at the least to variety. And don’t worry, anonymity guaranteed.
So, find me on:
Twitter - @npenlington
Facebook
Or email me: info@ChooseYourOwnDocumentary.com
Let me make life easier for you for the day. Choose to not choose.
www.ChooseYourOwnDocumentary.com
I first discovered Richard Brautigan’s work in Compendium Books in Camden. I was 18, and I’d just moved to London to study. Compendium emptied my overdraft with its stock of largely ignored counter-cultural, dadaist and avant-garde writers, many in original editions. How could I ignore a book that just had one word printed boldly across the back cover - Mayonnaise. Brautigan quickly became one of my favourite writers.
One of my favourite bands as a teenager was Pulp. Like Jarvis Cocker I was also from a working-class family, I too was gangly and sensitive - his lyrics offered a reassurance that it was ok to pursue a creative ambition however much of a struggle it might be. So, when I heard that Jarvis was presenting a programme about Brautigan for BBC Radio 4 I had high expectations. The revealing, intelligent, and inspiring half hour I’d imagined it would be sadly never materialised. It all seemed a bit of a rushed, last minute addition to scheduling.
Over the last year Brautigan fans in London have been spoilt by the Brautigan Book Club, a regular monthly event held at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. It is a celebration of his work, one book at a time. And while attendees are encouraged to read the book represented that month, it isn’t entirely necessary, as the varied line-up of speakers approach Brautigan’s work from a variety of angles and subjects. So, if you are interested in finding out more about his work, there are three more events this year - the next one is Tuesday 25th September.
Click here for information about the Brautigan Book Club.
Jarvis Cocker’s Brautigan programme is on iPlayer until 24th September.
