Review: I Do by Dante or Die

This revival of Dante or Die's 2013 site-specific piece set within a working hotel is a potent mix of intimacy and drama that you'll want to relive again and again.

Photo: Greta Zabulyte

Anyone who's ever been married or part of a bridal party can tell you that despite everyone's best efforts, weddings are often messy affairs. Emotions run high, there's a huge amount of pressure on those involved, and even the most angelic couples can't insulate themselves from the potential drama that bubbles under the surface of what's meant to be both the biggest and happiest day of their lives.

In Dante or Die's I Do, which first debuted in 2013 and returns now as part of the company's 20th anniversary year, the inherent drama and chaos of a wedding day is dialled up to an extreme and offers audiences the chance to voyeuristically look on at the unfolding chaos surrounding the soon-to-be-wedded Georgina (Carla Langley) and Tunde (Dauda Ladejobi).

Directed by Daphna Attias and presented in London as part of Barbican's Scene Change season, this site-specific production takes over six rooms and the adjoining corridor of the Malmaison Hotel near Farringdon until 8th February, before transferring to Malmaison's in Reading and Manchester next month.

Photo: Greta Zabulyte

Upon arriving at the hotel, audience members are each given a coloured buttonhole and assigned a group, which they remain with throughout the show. Each group of up to 12 rotates through all six hotel rooms over the course of 90 minutes (though the order in which they do so differs for each group) and watches the same ten-minute period unfold from a different perspective each time. In between each room change, the audience all gather in the hallway as the floor’s cleaner (Rowena La Poer Trench) winds back the clock, wiping down surfaces and tidying in reverse.

For the best man, Joe (Manish Gandhi), the final run-throughs of their speech couldn't be going much worse. At the eleventh hour, Tunde, who unbeknownst to everyone else is experiencing a severe case of cold feet, has given him a list of anecdotes from their shared past that can't be included, and with very little left beside a handful of empty platitudes, Joe quickly begins to spiral as nerves get the better of them.

Equally nervous is bridesmaid Lizzy (Alice Brittain), who's impatiently (and secretly) waiting out the two-minute timer after doing a pregnancy test amidst last-minute preparations with the bride, and Georgina's father, David (Jonathan McGuinness), whose attendance is in doubt as they weigh up bailing on the day altogether and getting on the first flight back to Menorca.

Elsewhere in the hotel, Georgina's grandparents, Eileen and Gordon (played beautifully by Fiona Watson and Geof Atwell), both find themselves increasingly frustrated by Gordon's physical limitations; mother of the bride Helen (Johanne Murdock) has a surprise knock at the door from an old flame; and best friend-cum-bridesmaid Abigail (Tessie Orange-Turner) grapples with the fallout of opening up her marriage.

Photo: Greta Zabulyte

While none of the characters or individual plotlines found within Chlöe Moss' script would feel out of place in an episode of EastEnders or Coronation Street, the real magic of I Do lies in how tightly all of its characters' stories are interwoven together. Members of the wedding party will enter and exit each other's rooms without a moment's notice, inserting themselves into other people's storylines, and regular texts/phone calls/voice notes between guests offer up only one side of each conversation.

Regardless of whether the payoff to what a character said or got up to outside of any given room takes 10 minutes or an hour to come around, there's a real joy to seeing how every piece of I Do's carefully constructed narrative slots together as each subsequent room is experienced and the full picture comes into view.

With the audience’s presence never acknowledged by any of the wedding guests, they’re given free rein to position themselves wherever they’d like in each room. For the most part, this results in audience members relegating themselves to the corners, perching on windowsills and leaning against wardrobes, but they're encouraged to sit or stand anywhere there's available space, even if it seems to be encroaching on where the cast will soon be.

Photo: Greta Zabulyte

The audience can also freely rummage around each room, opening drawers and picking up items from desks and bedside tables to learn more about the show’s characters and their relationships to one another. Those feeling extra nosy can also take a look at characters' phone screens as the wedding party anxiously texts and voice notes each other and read any of the numerous handwritten notes that change hands around the hotel, which offer further context to their inner thoughts and feelings.

The concept of an audience silently watching on as scenes unfold across multiple spaces certainly isn't a new one for immersive theatre fans, but the intimacy on offer in I Do proves to be far more potent than in any of Punchdrunk's masked offerings, in large part due to just how closely the performers and audience are to each other for sustained periods. In quiet moments, you can hear a pin drop, and every one of the bridal party's confessions, whether screamed into a pillow or whispered under their breath, can be heard by everyone present.

Photo: Greta Zabulyte

When I Do first debuted back in 2013, it marked a turning point for Dante or Die, as they began to shift away from movement-based work into narrative-driven theatre. Some 13 years on, that decision is still bearing fruit, and the work they've produced since has continued to push the boundaries of site-specific theatre. While we eagerly await their next project, which is due to launch in the second half of 2026, this rare chance to revisit one of the company's best-loved pieces is an opportunity worth taking full advantage of.

★★★★

Interview: Dante or Die's Terry O'Donovan and Daphna Attias

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Dante or Die's I Do runs at London Malmaison near Barbican station until 8th February 2026. Tickets are priced from £35.00. To find out more and book tickets, visit barbican.org.uk.