People, Places, & Things NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (116)
See it if you want to see one of the year's most masterful performances and an engaging, wonderfully staged production in the beautiful St. Ann's.
Don't see it if you're looking for a recovery story that truly covers new ground.
See it if You are interested in the tragedy of addiction & the difficulty of recovery portrayed with powerful acting and excellent set design.
Don't see it if you like to play it safe and prefer to avoid messy life situations
See it if You want to be thoroughly engrossed and entertained by addiction and mental illness (I mean that seriously). There is a powerful ending.
Don't see it if Drugs, profanity, addiction, and other similar issues make you cringe. This was a sensitive yet intense exploration of these topics.
See it if You appreciate when a show's director has brought together extraordinary designers and actors to tell a story
Don't see it if You don't like loud sounds and flashing lights Read more
See it if you want to be emotionally wrecked by an unreal performance by Denise Gough in an innovatively staged production.
Don't see it if you are easily upset by topics of drugs, alcohol, and addiction.
See it if you don’t want to miss a creative production imported from London and centered by the excellent Denise Gough and fabulous sound-lights-set.
Don't see it if your night will be ruined by a lengthy, even though abbreviated, group therapy session that seems endless.
See it if you enjoy great acting in an involving, absorbing story. It's really good.
Don't see it if IMO, not to be missed
See it if You want to see substance abuse and addiction issues handles sensitively and intelligently aided by an amazing lead performance by Ms. Gough
Don't see it if You dont like to see substance abuse and addiction issues dramatized.
Critic Reviews (29)
"Emma is an absolute firecracker of a role and Gough portrays her magnificently...It's a tortuous physical and emotional journey that Gough plays with astounding commitment...It's a sharply observed story that has a strong ring of truth to it...It features all the highs and lows of life while deftly highlighting just how limited treatment for addiction is today...It's a strong work on its own with writing that stands up and whacks you round the head."
Read more
"Gough gives a career-defining performance...It is the kind of performance that makes the play appear far better than it actually is. Herrin’s production is full of theatrical chicanery and effects...Beneath the loud bangs, the sputtering lights, the strobes, and Gough’s incendiary performance, there lies a surprisingly conventional play...While there are some moments of clarity and powerful writing, Macmillan’s determination to mine every cliché about actors beggars belief."
Read more
"Failed to keep me engaged throughout...It very quickly became drama about drama, something which barely lets up during the evening’s proceedings...Gough is clearly a very capable actor but her character goes from being aggressive and confrontational to droning on and on...It was more than a bit dull...As it stands, the depiction of Emma’s mental state...is well choreographed...But the whole thing is too long and too uneven to qualify as a triumph."
Read more
"The depth of the piece, the empathy you feel, and the extraordinary cast simply represent theatre at its best...This play tampers with humanity at its most raw, finding what many think and feel but perhaps are not aware of...MacMillan’s text is excellently realized by Herrin with some deeply human, real performances...There’s an energy about Gough's performance that I have never felt before, with an almost sickening certainty that something spectacular is and has happened."
Read more
"Once in a while a piece of theatre comes along that's so riveting you almost forget to breathe while watching it. Such is the case with Duncan Macmillan’s uncompromising examination of addiction, featuring a mesmerizing performance by Denise Gough...Gough carries it off with aplomb and takes the audience on a roller coaster of comedy and heartbreaking tragedy...It’s all superbly marshalled by Herrin, who seamlessly blends the hallucinatory and real worlds."
Read more