“People, places, things” and then dinner

Saw “People, places, things” at Wyndham’s Theatre last night. What an experience! I was lucky to be seated on stage, close to the action, and therefore all the more blown away by Denise Gough’s electric performance.

She plays an alcohol and drug addict, “caught between wrath and terror” and trying to save her life through something similar to AA’s 12 step program. The fact that her character is astonishingly intelligent (after a rant in which she mentions Foucault and Derrida, her therapist concludes, “So you’re an addict because of postmodernism”) and a talented actress who is more comfortable playing colorful roles than being herself (at her first meeting she begins, very reluctantly, to introduce herself and the background to her addiction, when someone calls her out for stealing from “Hedda Gabler”), make her (and the play) multidimensional and captivating.

The staging is equally fantastic, including the use of video, light and many moving parts that construct and deconstruct scenes seamlessly. One of the most unforgettable visuals in the play is a choreographed sequence representing withdrawal (spoiler alert). All of a sudden clones of the main character begin to crawl out of every corner and crevice on stage, writhing alarmingly and then rising up from under the bed covers, climbing out of the floor, emerging from walls and furniture. Each incarnation is vomiting, shaking, hallucinating, panicking, screaming. It’s a terrifyingly bad trip. And most excellent theatre.

scene from people, places, things
mara ahmed with hasan and naaz mustafa