People, Places, & Things

“A thrilling, devastating and, yes, deeply unreliable look at recovery...The staging gives the illusion that something dynamic and new is happening...But I kept waiting for something bigger than fine stagecraft — and even Gough’s ingenious performance — to kick in...However valuable and accurate 'People, Places' is as a portrait of the addict’s nightmare, the play really wants to weigh in on a more fundamental issue about addiction and responsibility. And on this note it seems to waffle." Full Review

“A superbly astute theater piece...Herrin's invigorating production is unlike anything we've ever seen in terms of sheer creativity...When it seems like Macmillan’s about to take a dramatically easy route, he doesn't hesitate to throw an 11th-hour wrench into the works...This play is written with a complex understanding of real life...Gough's full-on performance is almost hard to watch at times because of this starkly authentic physical and emotional nakedness.” Full Review

“A sensorially thrilling show...As a production and a performance, ‘People, Places & Things’ is a fireworks display. Narratively, though, the play follows a traditional pattern, one you can predict...The piece shows real sympathy for those in recovery, and Gough is giving an old-fashioned, barnstorming, operatic performance. If it doesn’t bother you that there’s something false at the story’s core, then, hell, lean back and let the experience take you away.” Full Review

“Herrin’s staging and the acting approach (by a strong ensemble) hews to a baseline of gritty naturalism. But the script is studded with brainy debates...Gough is so spontaneous and visceral, you nearly forget how hard she’s working — how many pivots and layers the role requires...A meticulously detailed portrait of a woman traumatized by a homogenized culture and parental neglect, who shovels mountains of drugs into the hole of her modern, excavated self." Full Review

"Herrin and his team have all sorts of ways of signaling the depth Emma's distress...Macmillan's bluntly unsentimental handling of Emma's recovery is hair-raisingly evident...Throughout, Gough gives the kind of performance of which careers are made - hilariously awful when drunk, dazzlingly on the offensive when sober, and, finally, moving, as she learns to let down her guard, only to absorb psychological blows...The rest of the production is equally assured." Full Review

“The first 20 minutes display the most bracing collaboration of playwright, actors, director, and designers in recent memory...The remainder of this harrowing play’s two hours lives up to this devastating beginning...MacMillan leads us on Emma’s soul-churning journey to sobriety, realized with daring imagination by Herrin and his inspired team...The clear-eyed script is refreshingly cliche-free...Gough brilliantly portrays the whirling kaleidoscope of Emma’s psyche.” Full Review

“Gough’s is not the only extraordinary performance...All ten cast members do a spot-on job, and director Herrin puts them and the design team to great use, with some inventive moments of stagecraft that are downright thrilling...Some will see ‘People, Places’ with a running time of about two hours and a half hours, as overlong and repetitive. But I found it worth the wait for the penultimate scene...It was also one of the most moving scenes I’ve experienced this season.” Full Review

“Although leavened by dark humor and eye-popping visuals, this play-so pertinent during our present opioid crisis-can be heavy going…Gough…gives a physically and emotionally grueling performance that bravely avoids sentimentalizing the character; in fact, by the end of the long first act, you may find your patience for her unrelenting hissy fits…wearing thin…Sarah's drug-fueled episodes allow director Jeremy Herrin and movement specialist Polly Bennett to concoct dazzling theatrical moments.” Full Review

"It's the human core of Gough's fearless performance that keeps you glued...While the group scenes can be somewhat repetitive and overwritten, the playwright strikes a considered balance between respect for the methods of recovery and skepticism about their limitations...Herrin's directorial flourishes, impressive and bracingly physical as they often are, do tend to pad the text, making it seem stretched at two hours and 20 minutes." Full Review

“Actress Emma (Denise Gough giving nothing less than a brilliant performance) falls apart from excessive drinking and drugging during a performance of 'The Seagull’...The scene during which she confronts her parents is perhaps MacMillan’s most effective—after a series of extremely effective play-long sequences directed by Jeremy Herrin...Macmillan lets no one off the hook in a work that makes a case for the undeniable benefits of rehabilitation.” Full Review

“Although elements of Duncan Macmillan’s play feel all too familiar (toxic parents, inevitable capitulation), a vivid, no-holds-barred star turn and striking staging distinguish the London import...Gough, in her New York debut, gives an explosive, wildly emotional performance. She is matched by a visceral, pulsing production that worms its way the addict’s addled brain.” Full Review

“Denise Gough is getting it all perfectly right in the phenomenal ‘People, Places & Things.’ It’s a whirlwind performance...In no way is this production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, standard in the slightest. It flies high, above any expectations that could exist, and then excels beyond even that...Every word and moment has intense meaning in Emma’s life and great importance in the overall arc of this fascinating tale...Gough is transfixing, and to miss her in this would be a crime.” Full Review

“Denise Gough, the lead actor, isn’t just good. She’s great playing Emma, an actress-addict who just can’t stop imbibing every drug known to man…Emma is also wildly funny...Unfortunately, Macmillan saved nothing but platitudes for the therapist and all the other patients…Whenever the 12-step talk interrupts one of Emma’s fascinating tirades, director Jeremy Herrin invariably comes to the rescue.” Full Review

"The brilliant way in which this tale about a woman's struggles with alcoholism and addiction is told deserves all the accolades that the production has been getting...A demanding role that requires the actress playing Emma to be simultaneously funny and poignant...Gough totally delivers...I'm saving my loudest hurrahs for the totally imaginative staging by Jeremy Herrin that includes dance-club music and choreographed segments." Full Review

"Likely to be noticed primarily as Gough's New York debut...But Macmillan's Grand Guignol voyage through the demolished mind of an addict is far more than a vehicle for Gough's virtuosic performance...Macmillan's drama is a timely depiction of the physical, psychological, and social impact of addiction. It's hard to imagine the sundry crafts of theater being brought together more expertly to dramatize the peril and pain of life at the mercy of drugs." Full Review

“‘People, Places & Things’ employs all sorts of clever visual tricks to disorient the viewer...Macmillan follows a fairly rote arc, of breakdown, recovery, relapse, and tentative recovery; you've seen countless variations on this story before…Gough is indeed extraordinary...But you also never quite escape the feeling that she and the show's creators are working overtime to mask the banality at the play's core." Full Review

“Macmillan’s play is a searing exploration of a still-taboo subject, brilliantly elucidated through its parallels with his own chosen art form...Emma comes roaring into chaotic, devastating life in the person of Denise Gough...The rumors are true. She is that good...Macmillan and director Herrin expertly walk the line between morbid humor and excruciating honesty...But the brilliance of ‘People, Places & Things’ is that empathy — vital though it may be — is no cure-all.” Full Review

“The hype that surrounds an award-winning performance on one side of the Atlantic can often preclude its impact if and when it arrives on the other side. This is not the case, I'm happy to report, with the overwhelmingly powerful performance of Denise Gough who deservedly won the Olivier Award as Emma in ‘People, Places & Things,’ a new play by Duncan MacMillan, which premiered in London in 2015, and is now enjoying its American premiere at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.” Full Review

“A play that blows the top of your head off...Some of the most inventive direction I’ve seen in years, a committed company, and a sensational central performance by Denise Gough...’People, Places & Things’ offers a number of compelling insights into the desperate struggles of the addict...There’s the over-arching question: ‘What is recovery?’ Emma attempts an answer at the play’s end—and it’s worth it to take the journey with her, just to hear it.” Full Review