News: People, Places And Things Returns To The West End

People, Places and Things, the smash hit play by Duncan Macmillan, is returning to the West End for a limited 14 week run this year. The production will run from the 3^rd May at The Trafalgar Theatre, with tickets going on sale on Friday the 15^th March at 10am.

Denise Gough will reprise her Olivier Award-winning role as Emma, a struggling actress whose life is spinning recklessly out of control. Denise Gough won ‘Best Actress’ at the 2016 Olivier Award and at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards for her performance in People Places and Things at the National Theatre in 2015. She went on to win her second Olivier Award, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America for which she was also nominated for a Tony Award when the production transferred to Broadway. She has also been nominated for a British Academy Television Award for her performance in Too Close. More recently she starred in Disney+’s hugely successful Star Wars spin-off series, Andor.

Tony Award-winner Bunny Christie will recreate her innovative set design with special on-stage seating bringing an element of intimacy to this vivid and transfixing portrayal od addiction.

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.  When intoxication feels like the only way to survive the modern world, how can she ever sober up?

Actress, Denise Gough, said:

“I am beyond excited and so grateful to be returning to the role of Emma in People, Places and Things. Duncan Macmillan’s incredible play was a life changing experience for me and many others. It brought me pure joy, night after night, to take to the stage to share Emma’s story and I can’t wait to bring her back to new audiences and to give voice, and space, to people that live with or have experienced any form of addiction”

Playwright, Duncan Macmillan, said:

“The debut of People, Places and Things was a really special time.  The play had taken me almost a decade to write and came partly out of a frustration with how addiction is typically portrayed on stage and screen.  Under Jeremy Herrin’s compassionate direction, the company visited treatment centres and worked closely with people in recovery.  We all felt a responsibility to make the play, primarily, for those who know what it is to live with addiction, for them to feel represented and seen.  We did not expect the incredible response the play received when it first opened and its momentum has only increased over the years, not least because of Denise Gough’s now mythic central performance.  She is, for me, the greatest actor of my generation and it is my great fortune that she took the role then and thrilling that she’s returning to it now.”

Director, Jeremy Herrin, said:

“When I was Artistic Director of Headlong, I read Duncan Macmillan’s play, and I knew I had an opportunity to make a production with real power.  With Denise Gough as Emma, it felt like we connected deeply with audiences at the National Theatre, in the West End and in New York.  The show seemed to be stimulating, entertaining and deeply emotional.  I am delighted to reunite with Denise, Duncan and the creative team to share People, Places and Things with new audiences, and I am grateful to all our colleagues and partners who have made it possible.”

People, Places and Things garnered widespread critical acclaim when it had its world premiere at the National Theatre’s Dorfman theatre in September 2015 in a co-production with Headlong.  The production transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre in March 2016 in London’s West End before transferring to St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York in October 2017.

The creative team includes director, Jeremy Herrin; set designer, Bunny Christie; costume designer, Christina Cunningham; lighting designer, James Farncombe; music, Matthew Herbert; sound designer, Tom Gibbons; video designer, Andrzej Goulding; movement director, Polly Bennett; casting by Jessica Ronane CDG CSA; and original casting by Wendy Spon.  Further casting to be announced.