“The piece highlights how we present ourselves to the work and to a potential lover, and how we all perform a version of ourselves”
Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
“Well developed and flawlessly executed..by the end of our hour sitting across from a total stranger, we realise that internationally or not, BDD rises even above the short term goal of deepening a connection between two people; it actually challenges you to be human again and try to see someone else for who they truly are”
★★★★ Londonist
“Excruciating and hilarious. Sometimes it’s rather sadistic. Sometimes it’s rather sweet. Giving away too much would spoil the fun”
★★★★ Time Out
Part interactive performance, part dating agency. A voice in your head guides you through an experience unlike any other. You are the date. Across the table, within arm’s reach, is another human being. Is this the one? In Binaural Dinner Date, a voice in your ear guides you through the perfect date. How many questions need to be asked before you feel like you are getting to know each other? With a Waiter who waits and a Chef to guide you? What is the worst that could happen? Getting to know the depths of another human being, and perhaps even yourself? Oh, and you get a free drink.
Come with your own date, or we can find one for you. We invite genuine applications from individuals looking for love or existing couples who simply want a different dating experience.
WARNING: do not come if you are fundamentally opposed to falling in love.
The experience mediates the space between strangers in public spaces such as restaurants and cafés and invites strangers to get to know each other better.
In Binaural Dinner Date, participants are set up on genuine dates – with their partners, friends or complete strangers – while a voice in their ears, as well as a Waiter and a Matchmaker, guide them through the curious urban ritual known as dating. The use of binaural sound to achieve a profound sense of intimacy and closeness is integral to the performance. Throughout the experience, the distinctions between live and pre-recorded speech and staged and spontaneous interactions are blurred.
Binaural Dinner Date won the IDEA (Immersive/Devised/Experimental/Atypical) DESIGN Award at The Offies 2024 for its brilliant use of sound design.
256 post-immersive live performances took place between 2016 and 2020 and have reached thousands of audiences at public restaurants and café spaces in the UK, including at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Watermans Arts Centre and Rich Mix, London; The Lowry, Salford; York Theatre Royal; Latitude Festival, Suffolk; Salisbury International Arts Festival; Rose Bruford College Symposium, PIIN Network Conference at Central School of Speech and Drama; and internationally at Macao International Festival; Espacio Odeon (Bogotá), and Festival de La Imagen at University of Caldas (Manizales, Colombia). Binaural Dinner Date received funding from Arts Council England, AHRC, British Council Colombia and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).
For more information and to book this show, email producer@zu-uk.com.
