On the face of it, I Do Not is a riotous comedy featuring a bizarre set of characters attending the wedding of a couple whose sense of overwhelm threatens to derail the day’s plan. But dig a little deeper and you get an interesting take on what love is relative to a single day’s excess and a small piece of administration.

Each character comes laden with emotion and it’s been a joy to work with an amazing group of actors whose inventiveness has allowed us to really explore this fabulous play.

I hope you enjoy it!

Tim

When I settled down to write I Do Not, all I had was a small idea: a wedding and a couple, both deciding separately not to get married. After that everything else fell into place. Which is really very fortunate because I only had about three weeks in which to write it. It was all a sort of fever dream, to be honest.

I think the ease in which it spilled out onto the page is down to a few things; firstly, for about five years I worked in a hotel where there were weddings most weekends. They say write about what you know, and as it turns out, I know a fair bit about those most magical, chaotic, and strange of days. They also say to give your work to people you trust, and that I did. It is my usual method to share my work as I’m developing it, so after my initial draft I thrust it upon a trusted reader who gave me lots of invaluable feedback, including such nuggets as; 

“I want an hour long epic set in Beryl’s house, with the comings and goings of people who don’t want to be there and live cats on stage”

So, if this goes well, look out for I Do Not: Beryl’s Revenge. I then gathered a cast of friends/actors and we spent two glorious evenings reading through and discussing the play, its characters, its pro and its cons. If it wasn’t for the help of all these talented, insightful people, I Do Not would probably have turned out fairly average.

Another reason I found this play such a joy to write is due to the characters that began to present themselves to me. I’ve been asked, and I can confirm none of the characters are based on any one person specifically. In lots of ways, they all share something in common with myself. You’re essentially going to be watching a room full of my different thoughts arguing with each other about the nature of love and marriage. But you’ll also be witnessing small slivers of my friends, family and random acquaintances. 

I hope that this range of characters will break the mould of who you might expect to see in a play like this. Old, liberal, foul-mouthed, queer, eccentric, awkward, passionate. Variety is absolutely the spice of life, and this play is nothing if not a little spicy! It was important to me to include queer characters, as I do in pretty much anything I write, for the simple fact that we queer folk exist everywhere non-queer people do, so why wouldn’t I?

The kindness, support, and positivity that I have received about this play has been genuinely uplifting and heart-warming. I am probably more excited than anyone else about seeing how this marvellous group of creatives has elevated my words, and I really hope that I’m not the one laughing the loudest at my own jokes. But there’s a good chance I will be.