Caroline Horton & Co and China Plate present:
All of Me: The Audio and All of Me: The Twine
Based on the stage show All of Me (The Possibility of Future Splendour) by Caroline Horton
Adapting to new formats accessible during the pandemic, Caroline Horton and team leap into the digital, interactive world, to explore what might happen when we refuse to keep on keeping on. It’s still about depression and death – sorry about that.
Both formats available from 23rd November at www.chinaplatetheatre.com from 3pm
All of Me: The Audio: Written and performed by Caroline Horton | Directed by Alex Swift
All of me: The Twine: by Caroline Horton and Alex Swift
@youroldchina | @carolineplays | #allofmeplay | www.carolinehorton.net |
#AllOfMeAudio #AllOfMeTwine
“This is a show that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you, first with laughter, then with dread, then finally with a sense of awe at both the darkness and the light within us all.”-The Independent on All of Me on stage in Edinburgh 2019 ★★★★★
Caroline Horton’s All of Me was a sell-out hit at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won The Fringe Mental Health Award and The Stage Award for Excellence. The original stage show was conceived as an intimate and absurd exploration of wanting to live, wanting to die and what can happen when we sit together in the dark. Now Caroline Horton reunites with director Alex Swift (Mess, How to Win Against History) to bring audiences two new versions of the show – one an audio experience, the other on interactive gaming platform Twine – a new space for innovation for theatre practitioners but already an established forum for creatives making work about mental health.
The audio version of All of Me was recorded in Caroline’s living room during lockdown, All of Me: The Audio is an intimate, absurd exploration of wanting to live, wanting to die and what can happen if we sit together with the dark. Adapted from the stage show, Caroline, director Alex Swift and sound designer Elena Peña promise a dark audio trip about dark things. All of Me: The Twine, is Caroline and Alex’s first leap into the world of interactive digital work, where the player must navigate their own journey through the show. Twine is an interactive tool for storytelling popular with the gaming community and other subcultures.
Speaking about the new versions of the show, Caroline Horton said “It’s been fascinating exploring the existing work from new angles, for example with The Twine we were able to create a much stronger sense of the cyclical nature of recovery, the player can really circle and cycle and repeat sections, whereas in a 70 minute theatre show your progression is more linear.”
Ed Collier, Co-Director of China Plate said “All of Me was an unsettling and extraordinary piece of theatre. These two new interpretations take the heart of that show and reimagine it in two very different mediums. Experiencing the audio version of the piece recorded binaurally, Caroline seems to plug straight into your brain, immersing your imagination in her world. The Twine version is something completely new for Caroline, the creative team and China Plate. Somehow it places the audience at the heart of the story seemingly offering you agency in where it goes whilst drawing you further into the darkness making you complicit in her journey. These new pieces are testament to the extraordinary tenacity and resourcefulness that theatre makers have shown in finding ways to continue to reach audiences through 2020.”
Caroline Horton is a theatre maker, performer and writer whose work has toured nationally and internationally. She was nominated for a 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre for You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, which also won The Stage Awards Best Solo Performer. Mess opened at The Traverse in 2012, where it won Best Ensemble at The Stage Awards. Her controversial show Islands, opened at The Bush in 2015 before transferring to the 2015 British Council Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival. Caroline wrote and performed Tranklements for the New Vic and Penelope RETOLD for Derby Theatre, which toured nationally in 2015. She writes regularly for BBC Radio 4, her piece Paris, Nana & Me was shortlisted for the 2014 Imison Award. In 2019 she toured her first show for young people, Muckers, madewith the egg, Bath and Conde Duque, Madrid. She is currently developing a new piece with Amerah Saleh supported by The Other Place (RSC) and University of Birmingham; community-based projects for Coventry 2021 and Newbury Corn Exchange, and developing Christy-Anne – a sequel to You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy.
Established in 2006, China Plate is an independent producer of contemporary theatre that engages around 35,000 live audience members annually. The company’s central mission is to ‘challenge the way performance is made, who it’s made by and who gets to experience it.’ China Plate is currently making work with Caroline Horton, Inspector Sands, David Edgar, Chris Thorpe, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Bagshaw, Urielle Klein-Mekongo, Roy Williams, Chris Haydon and Tim Sutton. They are Resident Producers at Warwick Arts Centre, partners in the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) founded to bring contemporary dance to rural venues around the UK, partners in the ACE Ambition for Excellence funded Musical Theatre Development Consortium led by Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton and Derby CAN, Derby Theatre’s Arts Council England Producing Hub.
Listings information
https://bit.ly/AllOfMeTheAudio
https://bit.ly/AllOfMeTheTwine
Audio: Running Time: 70 minutes | Age Recommendation 14+
Twine: Playing time variable | Age Recommendation 14+
Audio Credits:
Writer and performer: Caroline Horton Director: Alex Swift
Sound Producer and Designer: Elena Peña
Original songs written by Caroline Horton and James Atherton.
Produced by Caroline Horton & Co and China Plate
Song credit: “One More Fluorescent Rush”, written and produced by Avalon Emerson (ASCAP); courtesy of AD 93 Records
Twine Credits:
by Caroline Horton and Alex Swift based on the stage show All of Me by Caroline Horton
Illustrations and Design consultancy by Eleanor Field
Sound design by Elena Peña Original songs by Caroline Horton and James Atherton
Interactive dramaturgy by William Drew Digital consultancy by Jason Crouch
Produced by Caroline Horton & Co and China Plate
Song credit: “One More Fluorescent Rush”, written and produced by Avalon Emerson (ASCAP); courtesy of AD 93 Records
Funded by Arts Council England
Content Warnings for Audiences
All of Me: The Twine
All of Me: The Twine explores themes of depression and suicide. Contains strong language. Flashing images and visual effects. Heightened description of drinking alcohol.
Age Guidance: Recommended for audiences over 14 years old.
The following organisations provide valuable support and information around mental health issues:
- Samaritans on 116 123 provide 24-hour confidential, non-judgemental emotional support www.samaritans.org
- Mind on 0300 123 3393 (UK) provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem www.mind.org.uk
All of Me: The Audio
All of Me: The Audio explores themes of depression and suicide. Contains strong language. Heightened description of drinking alcohol.
Age Guidance: Recommended for listeners over 14 years old.
The following organisations provide valuable support and information around mental health issues:
- Samaritans on 116 123 provide 24-hour confidential, non-judgemental emotional support www.samaritans.org
- Mind on 0300 123 3393 (UK) provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem www.mind.org.uk