*Forking! Studio 250 at Off-Market, 965 Mission; www.pianofight.com. $15-20. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Sat/31. Honestly, when was the last time you went to the theatre on a Friday night and the work-groggy audience wasn't half asleep before the show even started? Somehow PianoFight Productions managed to circumvent that all-too familiar scenario at their excitable opening weekend of, full title, Fork Off Down Your Own Forking Adventure Which You've Forked: FORKING!.

Penned by Daniel Heath, winner of PianoFight's 2008 playwriting competition "Short Lived," Forking is a choose-your-own-adventure marathon, in which the audience votes for crucial plot points by applause. Though the script is not exactly Shakespearean in nature ("love doesn't solve shit, dude") it does manage to convey the aimless hormone-fueled existence of SF twentysomethings, trying to get by without health insurance, citizenship, and sobriety. From drinking games to Craigs List postings to singing "Tiny Dancer" in the bathroom mirror with an electric toothbrush for a microphone, each scene is weighted with familiar humiliations, a possibly platonic marriage of convenience between roommates at stake.

Playing out like a cross between American Idol and The Real World, this is theatre by and for the reality-show generation. Perhaps due to the unpredictable nature of the voting process, the show was decidedly overlong (over two hours), but thankfully far from tedious. (Gluckstern)