BINAURAL DINNER DATE Extends Run at New Location, Stratford Centre

After a successful run of first dates, ZU-UK have extended Binaural Dinner Date to run until 9th December with six performances in new location, the Stratford Centre. Tickets will be priced at £15 with £5 from every ticket going to local foodbanks. In addition, audiences will be invited to try a prototype of their virtual reality experience, Goodnight, Sleep Tight, which tucks audiences into bed for a performance that merges reality with digital.

Part interactive performance, part dating agency, Binaural Dinner Date invites individuals looking for love, or existing couples who simply want a very different dating experience. Using binaural sound, eighteen participants at a time (nine couples) will be guided by a voice in their ears to ask each other questions, offer answers, and consider the dos and don'ts of what we say, and what we would like to say, to each other on a date. What are we really thinking when we meet for the first time? How much are we prepared to confess? And are the questions we ask each other the questions that will help us find love? The experience is currently at Theatre Royal Stratford East's restaurant, Gerry's Kitchen, and will relocate for six final performances in the heart of the Stratford Centre.

Alongside Binaural Dinner Date at the Stratford Centre, Goodnight, Sleep Tight, ZU-UK tests the limits of 360º video by exploring the overlap between simultaneous live performance and digital experience. In the physical world, audience members are put to bed; through VR headsets, they experience bedtime as an eight-year old. The sights they see through the eight-year-old's eyes are mirrored in the real world, blurring their perception of both worlds as they see feel actors move around them until the realistic virtual space dissolves into a dream experience filmed using a drone flying over the immediate cityscape.

Binaural Dinner Date is the first instalment in ten-part series Decalogy of Loneliness. After ZU's award winning Hotel Medea (2009-2012) and the interactive technology exhibition Humble Market (2012-2014), the company has been developing ten artworks as part of the project. The company has been working with Canadian research institute TAG (Technoculture, Arts and Games) since 2015 using game-design to deepen ZU's work with immersive, participatory and interactive performance. Over the next three years, ZU will develop the remaining parts of the Decalogy, always focusing on the relationship between strangers in public and private spaces. The company will also be presenting two digital artworks using public phones, #RioFoneHack and How Mad Are You?, and a binaural prototype, Small Data Mining.

@iamzuuk | #BeTheDate | www.zu-uk.com | www.gas-station.uk

Current run

Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, London E15 1BN
16 Nov - 3 Dec, Thurs & Fri 7pm, 8.15pm & 9.30pm, Sat & Sun, 5.45pm

£10 | www.stratfordeast.com | 020 8534 0310

Extension

Stratford Centre, 54A Broadway, London E15 1NG

8 - 9 Dec, 7.45pm, 9pm & 10.15pm
Tickets from Eventbrite £15 (£5 from every ticket will go to local foodbanks)