CHOOSE YOUR OWN DOCUMENTARY

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 now. 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.

“Penlington’s fusion of wit, storytelling and visuals are garnering critics’ plaudits and attention” - Time Out 

“the best shows are driven by a personal passion” **** - Kate Copstick, Scotsman (on Nathan Penlington’s Uri & Me)

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. Supported by Arts Council England, initial development by Out Of Print.

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.

* 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. 

This is our brand new poster art! 

To be the first to receive updates about future shows please Sign up to our mailing list. 

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.

July 31st to August 26th 2013

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. 

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!

Tickets are now SOLD OUT. Returns only on the door. 

Book online here or call the box office on 0871 902 5734

Show starts at 8pm. 

Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare Street, London, E8 1HE

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. 

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 expedition sent to find out exactly where it leads. What happens next? You Decide. 

Remaining faithful to the original concept the iPad app is focused on the reading experience, with the animated illustrations literally bringing the story to life. The addition of a journey map, and a countdown of twenty-three possible endings reached taps into the game aspect of the books, and doing so also helps to encourage a complete reading.

So whether you want to relive the adventures you remember from your own childhood, or you want to share those adventures with children to explore for the first time, this is a brilliant way to do it.  

Click here to view the app on iTunes. 

Also check out the new print versions of other classic Edward Packard books. Click Here.  

We are 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, Exeunt, The Cultural Exposé, Evnt, 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 whet 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

“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

“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

“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 originator of the Choose Your Own Adventure format Edward Packard has been releasing his work for a new generation, and for new technology as U-Ventures.

You can now relive the classic adventures Return To The Cave Of Time and Through The Black Hole on Apple devices. And even better you can also buy them in the paper and ink, turn down the corner of the page in case you get killed, book format. 

Buy the apps here: www.u-ventures.net

Click here for the book information on Amazon. 

The response to the idea and story behind the documentary has been amazing, and the generosity of spirit of those we’ve met along the paths of adventure has been truly life affirming. 

There is only one day left until the first performances at Southbank Centre London. We’re excited to share with you a bigger, bolder show, one that contains more risks and more choice. 

Some lovely things have been said about the show already, including a preview in Time Out, and a feature/interview in Scout London. To read more please click the links below.

Time Out Preview - click here. 

Scout London feature - click here.

With over 1500 possible permutations of Choose Your Own Documentary each performance is different. Which means there are many stories you’ll never experience. Here is a little hint at just some of those possible stories…