Official website: https://www.drawmeclo.se/
Draw Me Close: A Memoir blurs the worlds of live performance, virtual reality and animation to create a vivid memoir about the relationship between a mother and her son in the wake of her terminal-cancer diagnosis. Weaving theatrical storytelling with cutting-edge technology, the project takes a deceptively simple and humanistic approach to the immersive medium: it allows the audience member to experience life as Jordan inside a live, animated world.
Created by award-winning playwright and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill, described as ‘the future of Canadian theatre’ by Canada’s NOW Magazine, Draw Me Close: A Memoir is the first major co-production between the NFB and the NT’s Immersive Storytelling Studio, in collaboration with multidisciplinary creative studio All Seeing Eye, with illustrations by Teva Harrison. The experience is a first for the form, integrating live performance and VR into one seamless narrative, with audience as performer – an actor in the immersive world.
Venice
Mostra Internazionale D’Arte Cinematografica (Venice VR)
August 29 – September 5 2017
The Young Vic, London
Previews from 21 January 2019
Closed 2 February 2019
Written and Directed by Jordan Tannahill
Performed by Tamzin Griffin, Geraldine Alexander, Penny Layden
A collaboration between the National Theatre and the National Film Board of Canada
Illustrations by Teva Harrison
Additional Illustrations by Olie Kay
Creative Technology by All Seeing Eye
Set Design by Tom Paris
Sound Design by Gareth Fry
Produced by Johanna Nicholls (NT) and David Oppenheim (NFB)
Executive Producers: Toby Coffey (NT) and Anita Lee (NFB)
Evening Standard article (18 January 2019)