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People, Places & Things
Emma was having the time of her life. Now she's in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn't with Emma, it's with everything else. She needs to tell the truth. But she's smart enough to know that there's no such thing.
Emma is an actress with addictions to drugs and alcohol, who checks herself into a rehabilitation centre. She is resistant at first, and does not want to enter into the honesty and trust needed to recover. As she gradually submits to the programme, we experience her complete unwinding, as she detoxes and faces reality.
Emma is an actress with addictions to drugs and alcohol, who checks herself into a rehabilitation centre. She is resistant at first, and does not want to enter into the honesty and trust needed to recover. As she gradually submits to the programme, we experience her complete unwinding, as she detoxes and faces reality.
88 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 2015
About the author
Duncan Macmillan
55 books60 followersThis page is for the English playwright. For the Scottish art historian, see Duncan Macmillan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
April 23, 2017
Have also written about People, Place and Things here: https://harryrmcdonald.wordpress.com/...
Disclaimer: I had the privilege of seeing this play twice; in its first home at the National Theatre, then 5 months later in the West End.
What reading the play did, was demonstrate that Jeremy Herrin's remarkable production with the utterly phenomenal Denise Gough was necessarily a 'reading' of the text. There is so much going on in Duncan Macmillan's text linguistically, formally and thematically that it requires a while to a) absorb and b) articulate into a review.
The story is this; an actress called Emma (or is she?) has a 'breakdown' mid-performance of The Seagull, and checks herself into a rehabilitation clinic in an attempt to get well. She is fiercely intelligent, determined, critical of the clinic's 12 steps: "I'm gonna really need you to be smarter than this," she says to a Doctor who wears a crucifix. The layers of self-censorship Macmillan has put into Emma's every moment, combined with her intelligence, her vulnerability, the extremities of her emotion, her wit and her sexuality render Emma one of the most significant female characters in post-war theatre. In my humble.
As a dramatist, Macmillan's plotting and pacing is damn near impeccable. The penultimate scene with the family remains the single most upsetting scene I've ever seen in a theatre. The plays biggest success? It's truthfulness. It neither glamourises addiction and the recovery process, nor does it glory in the agony it causes Emma and those around her. It is completely without self-consciousness and unwavering in it's authenticity.
Take a bow, Macmillan.
Disclaimer: I had the privilege of seeing this play twice; in its first home at the National Theatre, then 5 months later in the West End.
What reading the play did, was demonstrate that Jeremy Herrin's remarkable production with the utterly phenomenal Denise Gough was necessarily a 'reading' of the text. There is so much going on in Duncan Macmillan's text linguistically, formally and thematically that it requires a while to a) absorb and b) articulate into a review.
The story is this; an actress called Emma (or is she?) has a 'breakdown' mid-performance of The Seagull, and checks herself into a rehabilitation clinic in an attempt to get well. She is fiercely intelligent, determined, critical of the clinic's 12 steps: "I'm gonna really need you to be smarter than this," she says to a Doctor who wears a crucifix. The layers of self-censorship Macmillan has put into Emma's every moment, combined with her intelligence, her vulnerability, the extremities of her emotion, her wit and her sexuality render Emma one of the most significant female characters in post-war theatre. In my humble.
As a dramatist, Macmillan's plotting and pacing is damn near impeccable. The penultimate scene with the family remains the single most upsetting scene I've ever seen in a theatre. The plays biggest success? It's truthfulness. It neither glamourises addiction and the recovery process, nor does it glory in the agony it causes Emma and those around her. It is completely without self-consciousness and unwavering in it's authenticity.
Take a bow, Macmillan.
October 22, 2021
One of the most powerful and shattering British plays I've come across in ages, and one of best ever on the themes of rehab and addiction. Got to see a college production a while back, and considering it was only amateurs, I was so impressed with the Performances. The ending simply tore me apart. Read it twice now.
October 8, 2024
I find reality pretty difficult.
I find the business of getting out of bed and getting on with the day really hard. I find picking up my phone to be a mammoth fucking struggle. The number on my inbox. The friends who won't see me anymore. The food pictures and porn videos, the bombings and beheadings, the moral ambivalence you have to have to just be able to carry on with your day. I find the knowledge that we're all just atoms and one day we'll stop and be dirt in the ground, I find that overwhelmingly
disappointing.
January 29, 2022
Read it in one sitting. Couldn’t put the play down. I hated Emma, I loved her, I sympathized with her. Not many characters do that but Emma did! Macmillan has a unique way of digging into your soul and in this play he definitely did that!
July 15, 2024
This was so sad. In this short play, a theatre actress on the brink of fame, while trying to admit to herself the gravity of her addiction, encounters some real truths she didn't want to face. I felt attacked on her behalf multilple times.
I wish I'd seen the play live, the stage directions alone made it incredibly interesting, and I would have loved to see how some of the transitions described were handled.
I wish I'd seen the play live, the stage directions alone made it incredibly interesting, and I would have loved to see how some of the transitions described were handled.
March 15, 2023
They’re going to ask for everything but you’ve got nothing to begin with. Nothing.
October 19, 2024
I worry yoking addiction to meaninglessness/performativity is at best false and at worst trivializes both.
March 2, 2021
Fascinating, gruelling exercise in tackling addiction.
Emma is a confused, deeply unlikeable person lost in the many roles she performs as an actress, both on and off the stage. A self-loathing force of destruction without an apparent cause. If you think that makes her unrelatable, can you come round to my house and tell me how to live, please?
I feel a bit odd being invited back, through this work, to that church basement circle of chairs with everyone saying "Hi I'm an alcoholic" and so on. I really enjoyed Leslie Jamison's "The Recovering", which emphasised that there was almost nothing the author could say in such a setting that wasn't a cliché heard several times by the other members. So what on earth does Macmillan think he has to reveal to us about such a place? I didn't manage to put aside those reservations reading this. I somehow felt that we shouldn't be there at all, even though Macmillan's point, and what he does manage to skilfully reveal, is that the people who populate such places are timeless enigmas, even unto themselves. And what he extracts from their typical narratives, that we have seen before, is the easy backstory that explains their behaviour. I think that's quite brilliant and definitely a good reason for revisiting the chair circle. Real people are not problems to be solved and there's nothing more frustrating than being reduced to such by others. Macmillan has restored their mystery.
There is also a really brutal understanding of a parent's love, too. The hideous things that Emma says to her parents, what they say to her. And even so, once it's "all out in the open", it still doesn't guarantee improvement. This is a bittersweet message that I've been dealing with lately. I'm now at a place in my own life where I don't feel the need to hide anything and I'm more open to talking about topics that in the past I shied away from. But I'm still on Earth, right? No cure for that ;) That's kinda nice, though, because I don't think I'll again be so afraid of talking about certain things. What kept it bottled away inside was certainty that the world would transform in such a hideous manner should those topics ever get discussed. But we have limited impact on the outside world one way or another, turns out. Well, then I feel a tad more confident trampling about each day :D
What Macmillan consistently excels in doing in each of his plays is exploring topics in depth without claiming to have any answers or explanations. That's what makes his work so compassionate no matter what the topic—climate change, depression, mental health, addiction—the point, the way to connect/relate to the audience, is to show that what hurts so much about the influence of these topics in our lives is that we don't understand them and don't see how to grapple them. But that's why I feel less alone reading it. The bleak aspect is that we shouldn't expect these issues to go away any time soon—but that's how we become forced to connect to one another, through understanding that none of us are safe from life's cruelties, and even if life remains difficult, at the very least we always have one another <3
What better message could a play deliver?
Emma is a confused, deeply unlikeable person lost in the many roles she performs as an actress, both on and off the stage. A self-loathing force of destruction without an apparent cause. If you think that makes her unrelatable, can you come round to my house and tell me how to live, please?
I feel a bit odd being invited back, through this work, to that church basement circle of chairs with everyone saying "Hi I'm an alcoholic" and so on. I really enjoyed Leslie Jamison's "The Recovering", which emphasised that there was almost nothing the author could say in such a setting that wasn't a cliché heard several times by the other members. So what on earth does Macmillan think he has to reveal to us about such a place? I didn't manage to put aside those reservations reading this. I somehow felt that we shouldn't be there at all, even though Macmillan's point, and what he does manage to skilfully reveal, is that the people who populate such places are timeless enigmas, even unto themselves. And what he extracts from their typical narratives, that we have seen before, is the easy backstory that explains their behaviour. I think that's quite brilliant and definitely a good reason for revisiting the chair circle. Real people are not problems to be solved and there's nothing more frustrating than being reduced to such by others. Macmillan has restored their mystery.
There is also a really brutal understanding of a parent's love, too. The hideous things that Emma says to her parents, what they say to her. And even so, once it's "all out in the open", it still doesn't guarantee improvement. This is a bittersweet message that I've been dealing with lately. I'm now at a place in my own life where I don't feel the need to hide anything and I'm more open to talking about topics that in the past I shied away from. But I'm still on Earth, right? No cure for that ;) That's kinda nice, though, because I don't think I'll again be so afraid of talking about certain things. What kept it bottled away inside was certainty that the world would transform in such a hideous manner should those topics ever get discussed. But we have limited impact on the outside world one way or another, turns out. Well, then I feel a tad more confident trampling about each day :D
What Macmillan consistently excels in doing in each of his plays is exploring topics in depth without claiming to have any answers or explanations. That's what makes his work so compassionate no matter what the topic—climate change, depression, mental health, addiction—the point, the way to connect/relate to the audience, is to show that what hurts so much about the influence of these topics in our lives is that we don't understand them and don't see how to grapple them. But that's why I feel less alone reading it. The bleak aspect is that we shouldn't expect these issues to go away any time soon—but that's how we become forced to connect to one another, through understanding that none of us are safe from life's cruelties, and even if life remains difficult, at the very least we always have one another <3
What better message could a play deliver?
October 28, 2019
An imaginative fever dream that shows truths about addiction and recovery that other stories regarding the same subject have rarely achieved. And it is told with both bleak humor and the smallest of hopes. Loved it.
November 13, 2017
I need a hug.
January 30, 2019
Η Έμμα είναι μία νεαρή ηθοποιός που ζει τη ζωή της εκτός ορίων. Όπως λέει η ίδια όταν ενσαρκώνει ένα ρόλο τα πράγματα είναι πιο εύκολα γιατί είναι σκηνοθετημένα, ακολουθεί οδηγίες και κανόνες. Όταν όμως επιστρέφει στη πραγματικότητα οι καταστάσεις είναι πεζές και μη διαχειρίσιμες.
Το έργο ξεκινάει στη σκηνή του θεάτρου που ερμηνεύει την Νίνα από το θεατρικό έργο του Άντον Τσέχωφ “O γλάρος” και καταλήγει σ’ ένα κέντρο αποτοξίνωσης για να αντιμετωπίσει την εξάρτηση από το αλκοόλ και τις ναρκωτικές ουσίες. Στην αρχή της είναι δύσκολο να ακολουθήσει τις οδηγίες της γιατρού αλλά και την ομάδα αυτοστήριξης. Είναι επιθετική, νευρική και ανυπόταχτη σε κάθε συμβουλή. Έχει οχυρωθεί και προστατεύει τον εαυτό της από το πόνο. Αρνείται να βιώσει τα συναισθήματα της.
Ο Μαρκ από την ομάδα αυτοστήριξης της λέει “Είμαστε εξαρτημένοι λόγω ενός τοξικού συνδυασμού από χαμηλή αυτοεκτίμηση και από μεγάλη ιδέα για τον εαυτό μας”.
Ο δρόμος της απεξάρτησης που καλείται να διανύσει θα την οδηγήσει στην ΑΠΟΔΟΧΗ του εαυτού της. Η ιστορία της είναι σκληρή, στενάχωρη αλλά στο τέλος λυτρωτική. Απευθύνεται στο καθένα από εμάς ξεχωριστά και αγγίζει ευαίσθητες πτυχές του είναι μας.
Το έργο ξεκινάει στη σκηνή του θεάτρου που ερμηνεύει την Νίνα από το θεατρικό έργο του Άντον Τσέχωφ “O γλάρος” και καταλήγει σ’ ένα κέντρο αποτοξίνωσης για να αντιμετωπίσει την εξάρτηση από το αλκοόλ και τις ναρκωτικές ουσίες. Στην αρχή της είναι δύσκολο να ακολουθήσει τις οδηγίες της γιατρού αλλά και την ομάδα αυτοστήριξης. Είναι επιθετική, νευρική και ανυπόταχτη σε κάθε συμβουλή. Έχει οχυρωθεί και προστατεύει τον εαυτό της από το πόνο. Αρνείται να βιώσει τα συναισθήματα της.
Ο Μαρκ από την ομάδα αυτοστήριξης της λέει “Είμαστε εξαρτημένοι λόγω ενός τοξικού συνδυασμού από χαμηλή αυτοεκτίμηση και από μεγάλη ιδέα για τον εαυτό μας”.
Ο δρόμος της απεξάρτησης που καλείται να διανύσει θα την οδηγήσει στην ΑΠΟΔΟΧΗ του εαυτού της. Η ιστορία της είναι σκληρή, στενάχωρη αλλά στο τέλος λυτρωτική. Απευθύνεται στο καθένα από εμάς ξεχωριστά και αγγίζει ευαίσθητες πτυχές του είναι μας.
July 8, 2024
Izledigim en guzel oyundu bu sene. Kitabini da aldim kosarak, ama tabii sahnede izlemekle ayni etkiyi vermiyor. Yine de anlamadigim, kacirdigin yerleri gormek guzel oldu. Kalbimin icine sonsuz bi sizi birakti bu oyun benim.
People, places and things.
“I find reality pretty difficult. (…) I find the knowledge that we’re all just atoms and one day we’ll stop and be dirt in the ground, I find that overwhelmingly
disappointing.”
People, places and things.
“I find reality pretty difficult. (…) I find the knowledge that we’re all just atoms and one day we’ll stop and be dirt in the ground, I find that overwhelmingly
disappointing.”
April 11, 2023
watching this play was such a privilege and i’m still so blown away reading it after. it doesn’t play (pun?) with the harrowing reality of addiction and it hurts. but at the same time, macmillan manages to strike a balance between the raw and painful scenes, with humour. and it’s such a good play, feeling like emma is physically right in front of you and you just want to reach out to help but it’s just not that easy.
Read
July 29, 2022《تو دنیایی که برات محدودیت مشخص میکنه، که بهت میگه نباید تلاش کنی، که میگه شکست میخوری، تو دنیایی که میگه "نه"، یه دون کیشوتی میگه "آره"》
میگم حالا چرا دون کیشوت؟ آدم دیگهای نبود؟
میگم حالا چرا دون کیشوت؟ آدم دیگهای نبود؟
November 18, 2024
I feel lied to
July 18, 2021
2.5 Stars. I really enjoyed reading the first act, but the second act felt so incredibly rushed the play lost a lot of its meaning to me. I struggled a lot with the believability of the protagonist’s Act Two epiphany (it felt a bit out of nowhere, so it didn’t linger with me as something veritable). The program itself also felt minimally fleshed out and unclear.
Yet, I did still appreciate a lot about the play. In Act One, I instantly became enamored by it all — the unique use of punctuation, the stage directions, the dialogue. It was all so frenetically paced, I felt immersed and in such a genuine manner too. The structure is genius — the embodiment of an unreliable narrator was exquisitely and powerfully written. Also, I loved the physical representations of transference that were sewn in as motifs throughout the plot as well (particularly, the Mother and Doctor being played by the same actor). The way in which the author employed the concept of people, places, and things as a modality for understanding addiction was also very innovative and impactful.
Still, overall, the story itself felt sparse and left me rather disconnected from the characters. Though the dialogue felt incredibly authentic to natural speech, many of the soliloquy’s and monologues felt cliche (though a few definitely resonated with me). Would love to see this performed because I definitely think it’s a play that would shine in that medium!
Yet, I did still appreciate a lot about the play. In Act One, I instantly became enamored by it all — the unique use of punctuation, the stage directions, the dialogue. It was all so frenetically paced, I felt immersed and in such a genuine manner too. The structure is genius — the embodiment of an unreliable narrator was exquisitely and powerfully written. Also, I loved the physical representations of transference that were sewn in as motifs throughout the plot as well (particularly, the Mother and Doctor being played by the same actor). The way in which the author employed the concept of people, places, and things as a modality for understanding addiction was also very innovative and impactful.
Still, overall, the story itself felt sparse and left me rather disconnected from the characters. Though the dialogue felt incredibly authentic to natural speech, many of the soliloquy’s and monologues felt cliche (though a few definitely resonated with me). Would love to see this performed because I definitely think it’s a play that would shine in that medium!
February 28, 2020
This blew me away. I say this for every play that I read, but I would love to see this on the stage. The stage directions and visuals sound so interesting.
Although the play tackled difficult topics, I feel like these were done well - respectfully but not shying away when things got hard. I felt like I learnt a lot, not just about the subject matter of the play, but the construction of a play, characters, staging.
Finally making progress in my first ever drama module!
Although the play tackled difficult topics, I feel like these were done well - respectfully but not shying away when things got hard. I felt like I learnt a lot, not just about the subject matter of the play, but the construction of a play, characters, staging.
Finally making progress in my first ever drama module!
August 25, 2016
4.5 stars. Although there is much to like in this play script (with some killer audition monologues), and I have been assured the initial NT production was excellent, at times it veered a LITTLE too close to "Afternoon Special' territory for me to give it a full 5 stars. Also, given the large cast and technical difficulties involved, it's not a play that I can foresee being done very often.
February 5, 2021
Raw and powerful! A complex battle between mental health, addiction and recovery and the painful truth it seeks to expose. The characters were complex as well as the stage directions, allowing for interpretation and play to be had to stage the circuitous road to recovery. I am very interested in seeing how Headlong staged and performed this intricately crafted play.
February 9, 2019
Probably one of the most brutal and honest portrayals of mental health and addiction I have ever read. I am a big fan of Headlong theatre and I can definitely read their influence in the stream of consciousness style of MacMillan’s writing. You can feel the pain and agony of Emma’s character dripping from the pages, and I was left feeling bereft and raw as I finished reading this amazing play.
November 22, 2022
Incredible, beautifully written, powerful story, deep complex characters
April 15, 2024
studiato monologo tratto da quest'opera
June 18, 2024
Unlikeable, untrustworthy characters are the love of my life
June 29, 2024
the story of this generation
December 23, 2022
Gave it a 4 star because I loved seeing this on the stage, but this script was HECKA weird and hard to read. Although, one of my favorite plays
May 17, 2024
Enough to make anyone want to become an actress
June 30, 2022
Amazing!
June 19, 2023
Outstanding play, would love to see it or be in it one day!
4.75⭐️
4.75⭐️
May 18, 2023
what a beast of a play.
March 20, 2024
so good!! thought the plot was engaging, and the use of lighting in the stage directions to convey her emotional state was interesting. also loved the portrayal of emma (maybe??) as an unreliable narrator.
think this would be a really interesting play to watch to see how the lighting and staging would visually look. enjoyed reading it
think this would be a really interesting play to watch to see how the lighting and staging would visually look. enjoyed reading it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews