“a beautiful dance of love, death and grief delivered via a single live performer (the phenomenal Terry O’Donovan), headphones and mobile phones.”
- The Independent, Lyn Gardner
“There is immersive theater, and then there is theater so immersive that re-entering the world afterward comes as a shock, because you did not realize it had taken you so deep into another reality.”
- The New York Times
“A raw and magnetic performance... a gorgeous show about grief in the era of hyper connectivity."
- TimeOut
What happens to your digital life after your death? If there was a magic button, would you choose to delete your online history?
USER NOT FOUND is about our digital identities after we die. You enter a café and receive a set of headphones and a smartphone. Several tables away, a man is grappling in real time with something deeply private. Gradually, you bear digital witness via smartphone and an intimate, funny live performance to a stranger’s profound experience.
This site-specific play immerses you in both the private and public, provoking surprising considerations of our online afterlife and shifting notions of connection and community.
User Not Found premiered to critical acclaim as part of Traverse Theatre's 2018 Edinburgh Fringe programme. It has toured to over twenty cafes across five countries in conjunction with world-class arts organisations such as Brooklyn Academy of Music, Print Screen Festival, Israel and Battersea Arts Centre.
We have published the playscript of User Not Found, which includes imagery from Marmelo's app design. We're really proud of it - and you can buy a copy directly from the brilliant publishers Bloomsbury as part of the Oberon Modern Classics Collection.
The digitial designers at Marmelo have built a captioning tool within the smarthpones to embed captions for the performance. Collaborating with our Access Associate Sophie Gunn, every performance is accessible to D/deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members. If you're interested in hearing more about how Luke and Abhinav at Marmelo collaborated with us, and how they built the app you can watch a video with them here.
Read more about the academic collaboration which helped create this production here.
2019 Autumn Tour:
South Street Reading
Marlowe Theatre at Garage Coffee, Canterbury
Artisan Coffee, Ealing Broadway presented by Ealing Council with support from The Bush Theatre
Harrogate Theatre
South Holland Centre, Spalding
BAM at Greene Grape Annex Cafe, as part of The Next Wave Festival 2019
Print Screen Festival, Holon, Israel
2019 Spring Tour:
Unity Theatre, Liverpool
Corn Exchange, Newbury
Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff
Ventnor Exchange, Isle of Wight
Paisley Arts Centre
Hull Truck Theatre, with Grow Festival
Norwich Playhouse, with Norfolk & Norwich Festival
The CoffeeWorks Project Battersea, with Nine Elms on the South Bank & BAC
Cork Midsummer Festival, with The Kino
2018 Tour:
Traverse Theatre, with Jeelie Piece at the Edinburgh Fringe
PULSE Festival, Ipswich
The Roundhouse, London
Departure Lounge, Derby Theatre
Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick
Harlow Playhouse
South Street Arts, Reading
The Garden Cafe, with Brighton Dome & Brighton Digital Festival
Lincoln Drill Hall
Oxford Playhouse
Mansfield Old Library
The Edge, Bath
Cambridge Junction
Attenborough Centre for Arts, Leicester
Pot Kettle Black, with HOME Machester's Orbit Festival
Canvas Coffee, with New Theatre Royal Portsmouth
- Created by Daphna Attias, Terry O'Donovan & Chris Goode
- Created in collaboration with Marmelo
- Directed by Daphna Attias
- Writing by Chris Goode
- Performed by Terry O'Donovan
- Creative Technology Design by Marmelo
- Lighting & Set Design by Zia Bergin-Holly
- Composition & Sound Design by Yaniv Fridel
- Video Content by Preference Studio
- Access Development & Captioning by Sophie Gunn
- Costume Design & Design Assistance by Alessia Mallardo
- Movement Direction by Sarah Lamb
- Technical Stage Managers Philippa Mannion, Oran O'Neill & Tom Clutterbuck
“Written with a chatty poetic restraint by Chris Goode, this show is a beautiful dance of love, death and grief delivered via a single live performer (the phenomenal Terry O’Donovan), headphones and mobile phones.”
★★★★
Lyn Gardner in The Independent
“A tender, intimate story of love and letting go.”
★★★★
The Guardian
"handles mourning and technology with fingertip lightness"
★★★★
The Sunday Times
"There is surreal magic in the seemingly everyday details of this expertly crafted show... they light the room with the power of tactile, human connection."
★★★★★
The Skinny
“A raw and magnetic performance... a gorgeous show about grief in the era of hyper connectivity“.
★★★★
Time Out
"it's a show where form and content combine, crossing the digital divide back into the real world...it has a haunting life-or-death power"
- Scotland on Sunday
"This production is what theatre in 2018 should be - ambitious, contemporary and thought-provoking."
★★★★★
Broadway World
“It feels like a privilege to listen to and watch O’Donovan so intimately.”
★★★★
The Stage
“O’Donovan’s understated but deeply emotional performance generates an ethereal experience of astonishing power“
★★★★★
The Reviews Hub
"It’s a reflective piece about dealing with death and living online – two different kinds of absence wrapped up in one."
★★★★
Matt Trueman in Fest
"It’s a real feat in technology for the theatre...User Not Found is an amazing exploration of grief."
Exeunt's review through a Twitter feed
WINNER - FRINGE GROUNDBREAKER AWARD - The Wee Review
WINNER - BEST THEATRE SHOW - Broadway World 2018
In 2017 we approached Chris Goode to collaborate as a writer on User Not Found, which we had conceived. In March 2021 Chris emailed us to say he had been arrested. Three months later he ended his life and we discovered that he had possession of category A indecent images of children, and had abused adults over years within his practice.
Maddy Costa, Xavier de Sousa and Lucy Ellinson, three people profoundly affected by Chris have written sensitively and honestly about their experiences; and about how Chris abused his power. This blog contains personal accounts and calls to action. It also includes a comprehensive list of organisations you can reach out to if you’re affected by any of the issues raised.
Lyn Gardner has investigated how Chris’s abuse continued over years.
Following the revelations, we reassessed our safeguarding policies, ensured that the User Not Found team had access to wellbeing support and carried out team counselling for our core team. We cancelled upcoming performances of User Not Found in Canada. We were in touch with people close to Chris and attempted to understand how someone with whom we had collaborated so positively was not who we thought he was.
We continue to ensure that anyone working with us feels safe and is robustly supported through clear channels of communication with our Safeguarding Officer, and access to anonymously accessed wellbeing support. It is integral that the kind of abuse Chris carried out cannot take place in our company, or in our sector.
In Lucy’s blog she encourages anyone to reach out for support if they need it:
I would like to pause here and say to any freelancers out there, particularly young or emerging artists: Yes, going to speak to people, especially people in positions of authority, can feel really daunting. But if you are in harm’s way or need to report a concern, please take a step in that direction. While part of our work in publishing these blogs is to ask our industry to make it easier to report things, there are ways to get help now. My advice is to get a friend to help you and never doubt yourself.
User Not Found is the recipient of In Good Company's mid-career artist commission and was developed with the support of artsdepot's Creative Residencies, Southbank Centre, University of Reading, South Street, The New Wolsey Theatre, Roundhouse London & Stone Nest.
The London run is presented in partnership with Nine Elms on the South Bank, in association with Battersea Arts Centre.
The project is funded by IMAF, AHRC, Cockayne - Grants for the Arts & The London Community Foundation, The Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fund & Arts Council England.
