About the work
People, Places and Things is a play by British playwright Duncan Macmillan about addiction and recovery. It was created as a co-production between the theatre company Headlong and the National Theatre and opened in London's Dorfman Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin: the first performance was on 25 August 2015, the official premiere on 1 September 2015. The German translation by Corinna Brocher is titled Menschen, Orte und Dinge; the play was first performed in German on 14 February 2018 at the Berliner Ensemble.
Plot
The actress Emma collapses under the influence of alcohol and drugs during rehearsals for Chekhov's The Seagull and has to go through detox before she is allowed to work again. At the clinic she meets the twelve-step programme and group therapy with resistance and hides behind invented life stories – even her name is not her real one. After a relapse she returns and finally faces her past, including the death of her brother. A visit to her parents, however, shows that the people, places and things that trigger her addiction are still waiting for her outside.
Cultural significance
Critics praised the play for its portrayal of addiction; the original production transferred to London's West End in 2016 and to St. Ann's Warehouse in New York in 2017. Denise Gough won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for the role of Emma, and a further Olivier Award went to Tom Gibbons's sound design.