The process of going to rehab has been weirdly skewed by the media: a celebrity heading to some kind of glamorous retreat in a remote location and emerging a few months later revitalized and ready to take on the world. You will find no such glamour in Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things; what you will see is a raw and compassionate examination of addiction, mental illness, and the road to wellness. Directed by Diana Bentley, People, Places and Things is somehow filmic and immersive all at the same time, and so powerful that it’ll leave you thinking about it long after you’ve left the theatre.
Photo by Elana Emer
Emma is an actress getting some of the best ingenue roles on the stages of Toronto, until she starts to black out mid-play. Taking herself to get clean, Emma is initially extremely hesitant to commit to the work required of her by the program. Thankfully, the therapist, doctor, and nurse she meets there refuse to give up on her, routinely asking her to participate in group therapy and get to know her fellow patients. Emma is forced to strip away layer upon layer of lies and traumas to finally reach a point where her healing can properly begin. Bravely facing down her fears, yet not with her desired results, we’re left to wonder how much we’ve witnessed is actually Emma, and how much is just another character.
Photo by Barry McClusky
Macmillan’s writing is superb; People, Places and Things at times feels like a thriller, with so much deception throughout the play that you’re left to question everything you’ve witnessed. This is, in part, because we experience so much of it through Emma’s eyes: if she’s having a bad time with her meds, we see it, we experience it. Every vivid memory, every day she’s detoxing – the audience is directly privy to the chaos in Emma’s mind. And while we find out that our main character might not be the most reliable of sources quite early on (she tries to pass off the plot of Hedda Gabler as her own life story), it isn’t until the final moments of the play, when her mother calls her a name we haven’t heard before at all, we’re suddenly aware that the vulnerability we’ve witnessed wasn’t as full as we were made to believe.
Photo by Elana Emer
In these moments of confusion come the scenes where we get that filmic quality: at times, the ensemble becomes a whole host of Emmas utilizing the entirety of the Coal Mine Theatre to depict the tumult of emotional and physical distress Emma is going through. Bentley’s direction paired with Alyssa Martin’s movement direction create not only incredible choreography for the ensemble, but the overwhelming sense of fear and pain which Emma is also going through. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve seen thus far, and yet it’s all done with a sense of honesty and reality at its core; this is what detox can feel like, this is what getting clean can feel like, and they’re not shying away from it one bit.
Photo by Elana Emer
Louise Lambert leads the cast as Emma in what is certain to be a career defining performance. Her power and presence on stage is unmatched, and yet there’s a softness and grace in how Emma is shown to us which makes me want to cheer her on. Fiona Reid is a formidable scene partner for Lambert, as her doctor and therapist characters are feisty and know how to deal with patients like Emma. Reid’s comedic timing is spot on, as usual, and I have seldom heard an audience so viscerally react to a character as they did when she plays Emma’s Mum in the final scene. Farhang Ghajar’s Mark is a no-nonsense human who sees through every artifice Emma puts before him. The genuine care and compassion which Ghajar brings to the character is easily felt through this performance. Matthew Gouveia plays Foster, the intake nurse at the clinic and like Reid, his comedic timing is perfection. His deadpan, sarcastic delivery is marvellous (not to mention he’s got a pretty decent singing voice!). Oliver Dennis is a whirlwind of a character with his Paul; leaping out into the audience and manically delivering his messages of warning. Nickeshia Garrick, Sam Grist, Sarah Murphy-Dyson, Kwaku Okyere, and Kaleb Tekeste are incredible as the ensemble. Their physicality is mind-blowing and they give the piece that film-like quality to it.
People, Places and Things is the compassionate portrait of addiction and recovery which we need right now; the way that these things are spoken about within the play denotes a refreshing understanding and lack of judgement. Hopefully, a play like this will help inspire more frank and open conversations about these topics, fostering the kind of community Emma finds within the play.
People, Places and Things runs at the Coal Mine Theatre until March 9. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.coalminetheatre.com/ppt
Cover Photo: (L to R) Matthew Gouveia, Nickeshia Garrick, Kaleb Tekeste, Kwaku Okyere, Louise Lambert, Oliver Dennis, Fiona Reid, Farhang Ghajar, Sarah Murphy-Dyson, and Sam Grist. Photo by Barry McClusky.
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