Dante or Die is a UK based site-specific theatre company touring nationally & internationally.

Skin Hunger: Postponed

As we head into a new lockdown, we’re incredibly disappointed to be postponing our new performance installation Skin Hunger. 

The production is inspired by the ingenious plastic hug tunnels created during the first lockdown which so beautifully illustrated our need for human touch. Ann Akin, Tim Crouch and Sonia Hughes have written three poignant and insightful pieces that simply cannot be performed without an audience member sharing the space with a performer. Whilst we will quietly grieve for November’s lost performances, we will start planning for the moment when we can invite you into Stone Nest for what will be a much needed hug.

Skin Hunger: A socially distanced performance installation
by Dante or Die

1. Created by Daphna Attias & Terry O'Donovan
2. Written by Ann Akin, Tim Crouch & Sonia Hughes
3. Directed by Daphna Attias
4. Design by Khadija Raza

Venue:
Stone Nest,
136 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London W1D 5EZ

Dates: TBC

This is an individual experience, in line with the latest Government guidance for London. For full audience guidelines, see full FAQs here.

Dante or Die’s brand new performance installation invites you to take sanctuary in a hidden chapel in London’s West End.
Skin Hunger interrogates the power of touch - an aspect of humanity that so many of us didn’t realise we vitally needed until it was restricted. Three performers swathed in plastic; three intimate, one-on-one experiences, directed by Daphna Attias.

Presented in partnership with Stone Nest and funded by Arts Council England.

CULTURAL RECOVERY FUND

12 October 2020

We are delighted & relieved to have received a grant from DCMS & Arts Council England's Cultural Recovery Fund.

We're an artist-led company with no regular funding so this is a major lifeline to protecting our team in 2021, and giving us the opportunitiy to work with more wonderful freelancers.

Onwards!

Odds On

We are delighted to have been selected as part of Farnham Maltings' New Popular programme, to commission new theatre projects in the South East. In 2020-21, we will work in Kent & Reading with our partners Ideas Test and South Street, to pilot a new touring community engagement programme, ‘Odds On’.

The project will culminate in a sharing of scenes from a new production to take place in betting shops. The project will engage with those affected by gambling through interviews and workshops, to explore the role of bookmakers within small communities. The aim of this pilot is to create a programme and site-specific production, which can be toured to other communities across the UK in the future.

User Not Found: A Video Podcast

A new immersive video podcast based on our critically acclaimed 2018/19 live show User Not Found, commissioned by The Space and supported by Arts Council England. 

Experience on demand NOW on the Youtube player above or on Apple Podcasts here. 

"A powerful examination of loss, and a moving study of loneliness. It’s perfect for our times” ★★★★ The Reviews Hub

"Did you hold your hand up to the screen. I did. Oh, how I long to touch real flesh and blood at this moment. The magic moment of touch." Lyn Gardner

What happens to your digital life after you die?  If there was a magic button, would you delete your online existence?

User Not Found is a new immersive video podcast, about what happens to our online identities after we die. This new digital theatrical event is available to experience for free, in partnership with The Guardian Newspaper.

Charge your phone, plug in your headphones and find a quiet space for this intimate, meditative and funny story of one man grappling with something deeply private.

Running time: 50 minutes
Age guidance: 14+
Embedded captioning can be turned on/off

The exprience has been designed for smartphones with headphones; the viewer experience will not be the same on a desktop/ipad. It will work on any smartphone model and with in/over ear headphones.

Find out more and submit your feedback here. 

User Not Found News

We are delighted to be sharing User Not Found with Canadian audiences in Autumn 2021. The Canadian debut will be presented by The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario - dates TBC.

These will be our next international dates after our sold out US debut, as part of BAM"s Next Wave Festival in 2019, and dates at Print Screen Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

The show has now been performed over 130 times across 5 countries to packed audiences.

REVIEWS: 

We have been delighted with the reception from critics and audiences to User Not Found:

• “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
• “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
• “It feels like a privilege to listen to and watch O’Donovan so intimately.” ★★★★  The Stage
• “A raw and magnetic performance... a gorgeous show about grief in the era of hyper connectivity“. ★★★★ Time Out
• "It’s a performance brimming with an open-hearted truthfulness...Technology is a kind of magic, so is theatre. User Not Found employs the best of both." - Exeunt NYC
• "This production is what theatre in 2018 should be - ambitious, contemporary and thought-provoking." ★★★★★ Broadway World
• “O’Donovan’s understated but deeply emotional performance generates an ethereal experience of astonishing power“ ★★★★★ The Reviews Hub

PLAYTEXT:

The playscript of User Not Found, which includes imagery from Marmelo's app design, has been published by Oberon. We're really proud of it - and you can buy it RIGHT HERE.

R & D with Historic Royal Palaces

We are delighted to be developing a new immersive project with Historic Royal Palaces. Across 2020, we will be delving into female prisoners' stories at The Tower of London with a view to creating an after hours performance, inviting audiences to explore the hidden spaces and histories of The Tower. We will be working with a brilliant female creative team, including writer Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm. 

EVERYBODY’S GOT TO LEAVE SOMETIME

At any point a life will end.
This is a play about how we cope with the inevitable.
An exploration of a universal story that will affect all of us at some point.

This surprising, humorous and personal look at how we deal with the end of life sees us collaborate with Sheffield People's Theatre. In a unique theatrical experience, starting at the Crucible then on to the city centre's Upper Chapel, you'll be led through a series of intimate experiences by a 50-strong cast.

Dates: May 2020, Location: Upper Chapel, Sheffield City Centre

We are gutted that our co-production with Sheffield Theatres, Everybody's Got to Leave Sometime, will not go ahead with performances in May 2020 due to the ongoing public health situation. We have loved devising the show with members of Sheffield People's Theatre and are working to ensure that the show will be presented at a future date.