Things people have said about my work.
Penlington’s fusion of wit, storytelling and visuals are garnering critics’ plaudits and attention.
A natural performer, witty, inventive, stylish and original.
Consistently original and accessible.
On Choose Your Own Documentary:
That rare creature, a truly lovely show – ★★★★
‘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
‘Deeply nostalgic and dazzlingly modern’ – The Independent and i, feature by Alice Jones.
‘Ultimately a love letter to the Choose Your Own Adventure books and a directive to live actively and make choices’ – The New York Times
‘An awkward, unusual, tender story about what it is to be awkward and unusual’ – ★★★★ The Times
‘This is a piece full of nostalgia for the 1980s but it’s also about moving on from the past. And, in our case, it’s a love story – but you may not get to that bit. By the end, there are still tantalising mysteries…Maybe you’ll get to find out, but we had a different story – one no less satisfying because the ending wasn’t the one we were expecting’ ★★★★ – The Scotsman
‘Enough intrigue, excitement and decision making to keep you glued to your seat’ – ★★★★ Official London Theatre
‘A really sweet little show that is guaranteed to leave you smiling – as long as you choose wisely’ – ★★★★ Plays to see
‘It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a cult lurking in some sodden Welsh valley, drinking Tizer, eating Penguin biscuits and devoting themselves to following the path of ‘Choosing Wisely’’ – a lovely review by Geekocracy blog.
‘Choose Your Own Documentary is a neat, sweet show, which delivers plenty of heartwarming character despite its high concept. It would be difficult not to love this show. Interactivity makes you feel involved, and makes the outcome so much more emotionally satisfying. It might seem simple on the surface, but it’s breathtakingly complex underneath… as all the best choose-your-own-adventures are’ ★★★★ – Fringe Guru
‘Funny, touching, stratospherically human production. The thing that makes this show exceptional is the kind of story it tells. It’s not the rollicking intergalactic and hyper-dimensional quest of the original Choose Your Own Adventure books. It’s much closer to home than that. This subject matter is explored gently and subtly, and it makes the show so, so much more than its ingenious format’ ★★★★ – Broadway Baby
‘Inspiring, original, and deeply moving’ ★★★★ – Informed Edinburgh
‘Could this be the first X Factor/ theatre mashup?’ – The Cultural Exposé
‘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
‘With audience interaction for introverts, Choose Your Own Documentary reinvents the comedy/documentary genre’ ★★★★★ – Giggle Beats
‘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
‘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
‘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
‘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
“Southbank Centre is proud to be co-commissioner of Nathan Penlington’s Choose Your Own Documentary, a sensitive, exhilarating journey to find the boy in the book. The audience, who help to direct the action of the show, become as intrigued as Penlington, driving him on in his quest to explore how his narrative has intersected with one boy’s childhood diary. A triumph for live literature” – Southbank Centre
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.
On The Boy in the Book:
The discovery of diary pages inside an old Choose Your Own Adventure book sparks a choose-your-own-doc…probing, poignant – and free.
“When self-confessed obsessive Nathan Penlington bought 106 second-hand copies of Choose Your Own Adventure books on eBay he thought he was just indulging a childhood passion. Little did he realise that when he found an extract from a troubling, hand-written diary inside one of them, it would set him off on a life-changing adventure of his own.” – BBC Arts – Culture in Quarantine
“An online interactive experience that blurs the lines between gaming and documentary filmmaking…there’s something about the intricate procrastination of The Boy in the Book that makes it feel like it was tailor-made for a lockdown. If there was ever a time to use multiple realities as a way to distract from our own, this is it.” – Time Out
People say the books helped them think more about making decisions. Might our political leaders do worse than a crash course in the Packard oeuvre?
“An immersive, fascinating experience which leads to a real emotional investment” – Starburst Magazine
“Adorably geeky” – Culture Wars
Conflating fact with fiction, The Boy in the Book is a love letter to a forgotten genre that only stalwart fans could conjure up: life-affirming, celebratory, and devilishly constructed, the Choose Your Own Adventure-style production is like nothing else.
“Sometimes the past should be left in the past, but this interactive style is a reminder of the importance of choice, and how sometimes you need to go back a little in order to push forward. I am now on a different path for Nathan, and I am hopeful that it will lead to a better outcome. If not, I can safely say I have no regrets – perhaps one day I can look at life with the same lens as well.” – Cultured Vultures
On Uri & Me:
Wow! I Just discovered Nathan Penlington! His latest show is simply supernatural!’
‘Nathan Penlington encourages us to think twice before accepting the ridiculous claims of mystical pretenders’ – James Randi (renowned sceptic and magician)
‘Like watching Derren Brown in a cupboard. With sarcasm. And psychically charged orange dots. To be clear: this is a good thing’ – Londonist on ‘Uri & Me’
‘Against the odds, it seems Penlington is quickly becoming the next Michael Jackson in Geller’s life’ – Jody Porter, Morning Star
‘A fascinating hour’ ★★★★ – Kate Copstick, The Scotsman on Uri & Me
On poetry:
‘Ingenious’ – Times Literary Supplement
‘Fans of Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker and Simon Armitage will recognise Nathan Penlington’s whimsical poetic evocations from the North of the Watford gap. There’s humour which touches the same place, and he has the talent with words’ –The List
‘“Poetry is not the new rock and roll”, says Nathan Penlington…but he’s saying this on huge stages to rumbling audiences made up of the young and excitable caught in a craze and it’s hard to believe him. If it’s not rock ‘n’ roll, it certainly feels like it’ – Disappear Here
The best qualified performance poet in the country.
Interviews
Here are some links to interviews and articles. Hopefully you’ll find them interesting, or at least a little revealing.
The Independent – I spoke to Alice Jones about the unknown elements of performing Choose Your Own Documentary for this feature in The Independent and the i. Click here for the full feature.
ABC’s The World Today – During a visit to Sydney’s Antenna Documentary Festival I popped into Australia’s ABC to speak to Eleanor Hall about the darker side of childhood and the quest to find Terence Prendergast. Click here for the audio and online transcript.
Arts Industry – Just before the launch of the digital version of The Boy in the Book I was questioned about the process, inspiration, and background to the project. Click here for the full Q&A.
Poet Waffle – I was honoured to receive an invitation from Dan Cockrill (author of the genuinely great ‘In The Beginning Was The Word, Then A Drawing, Then More Words, Another Drawing, And So On And So On’, and co-founder and host of the best poetry night on the planet Bang Said The Gun) to go on his podcast. The format is simple, poets and writers that Dan likes are invited to his shed to chat. That’s it. Like all decent conversations the chat can lead anywhere. The podcast is available in all the places you’d want to listen to it including Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lunar Poetry Podcasts – Sarah Lester and I spoke to Lunar Poetry about collaboration, writing An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London, and what it means to observe. Click here for the full audio.
Z List Dead List – A podcast exploring the history of the not-so-famous. I spoke to Iszi Lawrence about my obsession with the unusual eating habits of Michel Lotito. Click here to listen online.
BBC Click – Choose Your Own Documentary was featured on BBC TV tech news programme Click. Filmed at the Edinburgh Fringe the segment of the show explores the use of technology in live comedy, and contains live footage of Choose Your Own Documentary, a short interview with me, and more importantly how the audience interact with the performance. Click here for details or watch a short clip on YouTube.
Transmedia Storyteller – The Choose Your Own Documentary team spoke to Robert Pratten for this regular podcast about the making of the show, the problems of trying to tell multiple true stories and our plans for the future. Click here to hear the interview in full.
We Heart – is a fantastic art & culture magazine. They recently featured a series of young British artists and creatives – I spoke about Yorkshire pudding, seaside towns and darts. Click here for the interview.
The New York Times – Amazingly Steven McElroy, theatre correspondent for The New York Times, came to see Choose Your Own Documentary at the Edinburgh Fringe. He used the show as a metaphor for the whole festival experience. Click here for a scan of the article.
Scout London – this is an interview about Choose Your Own Documentary before the preview shows at London’s Southbank Centre back in 2012. It raises some of the issues of making the show, while skirting around the question to which everyone wants to know the answer.
Fighting Fantazine – I was interviewed by Sarah Lester for the world’s only game book magazine Fighting Fantazine. We spoke about the joys of meeting childhood heroes, the pros and cons of time travel, and the making of Choose Your Own Documentary. Click here to download the huge, free, Issue 12.
The Literary Platform – This short article for an online magazine that explores the intersection of books and technology explains the background, format, and structure of Choose Your Own Documentary. WARNING: contains spoilers! – Click here for the full article.
East End Review – Sarah Lester and I were interviewed for the monthly East End newspaper about the process of writing An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London, the difficulties of paying attention, and the reasoning behind the project. Click here for the online version of the feature.
Edinburgh University English Lit blog – After a performance of Choose Your Own Documentary at the Edinburgh fringe I spoke to Yasmin Morgan-Griffiths about balancing absurdity, emotion and jeopardy in performance. Actually, thinking about it, they are the three key ingredients of theatre, and of darts. Click here for the interview.
Burning Eye Books – Sarah Lester, my collaborator on An attempt at exhausting a place in London, and I question each other about the process and aims of the project as guests on this blog.
Uri & Me – I was lucky enough to get some good reviews for the show including one from Kate Copstick for the Scotsman, and Jody Porter for the Morning Star. You can read how I felt about Uri Geller attending this show in the Camden New Journal, and if you want to try an interactive cutlery experiment click here for a feature from The View.