In Therry Theatre’s production of I Do, I Do, I Do, the company understands that farce lives or dies on speed and spectacle. Director Sue Wylie keeps the tempo high, while set construction manager Don Oswald gives her a playground worth running in.
The living room of a wealthy banker, all Art Deco yellow and blue with ruffled curtains, a Rodin the Thinker sculpture and a staircase to the guest bedroom, screams privilege before anyone opens their mouth. It’s ostentatious and fun, and it frames the night’s escalating chaos perfectly.
Robin Hawdon’s comedy centres on Diana, a rich, much-admired young woman who, over one catastrophic weekend, has promised marriage to three different men: her official fiancé Jamie, his best friend Geoff, and Tom, who is dating Jamie’s sister.
With a big society wedding looming, Diana cannot decide which version of love she actually wants, leaving Jamie’s mother Ann to referee the bedlam until the final bell.
As Ann, Helen Geoffreys is fully at home in this world. She nails the clipped high-society accent and carries herself like someone who has never had to raise her voice to get her way. That polish isn’t matched across the board.
Paul Pacillo’s Jamie drifts vocally; he needs the same aristocratic finish as his “banker’s son” backstory to sell him as the rational, eligible catch the plot requires. In a status-conscious farce, accent continuity matters.
Laura Lines, though, stepping in as Holly with barely two weeks’ notice, looks and sounds settled, never telegraphing a late substitution. Stephen Bills as Geoff and Jessica Corrie as Diana bring crisp timing and clean reactions; they keep laughs landing even when the script leans on repetition.
And it does. The show is funny, but many laughs come from how flagrantly unbelievable the circumstances are. You’re not going to believe this feels like a running gag, and by the third iteration, the audience takes the hint: disbelief is the point.
Hawdon is poking fun at the types of love: Greek frames like eros (desire), philia (friendship), pragma (enduring partnership) can be mapped onto the triangle of suitors. It’s unexpectedly relevant to the Tinder era, where endless options breed paralysis, and it’s just as reminiscent of drawing-room courtship rituals where marriages were pitches and dowries.
There’s a catch. The script risks reinforcing a dated trope: the indecisive woman while men orbit as charming strays. Stretching the who will she marry? suspense to the final minutes forces extra turns that defy sense, including a bride kissing all three would-be spouses on her wedding day.
Romantic comedies usually work because you want one outcome. Here, none of the couplings is strongly desirable. The text doesn’t give us enough backstory to care, beyond Jamie being the banker’s son. That’s not on Therry; that’s the material.
Therry Theatre can control the pace, precision, and polish. Wylie’s staging hits its marks, and Oswald’s set is a genuine asset. Geoffreys anchors the room, while Lines, Bills, and Corrie keep the engine humming. The accent mismatch is fixable, but the script’s logic isn’t. I Do, I Do, I Do is a funny show, but not necessarily a work for a thinker.
I Do, I Do, I Do is presented by Therry Theatre and runs to 8 November at the Arts Theatre. 53 Angas Street Adelaide SA 5000.
Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1352086
Website: https://therry.org.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/therrytheatre/
Images supplied.
