PEOPLE,

PLACES
& THINGS
BY DUNCAN
MACMILLAN

DRAMATISTS
PLAY SERVICE
INC.
 PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS
Copyright © 2017, Duncan Macmillan

All Rights Reserved

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PLACES AND THINGS is subject to payment of a royalty. It is fully protected under the
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for which must be secured from the Author’s agent in writing.

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its territories, possessions and Canada for PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS are con-
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2
for my sisters
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS was first produced by Headlong
Theatre Company (Jeremy Herrin, Artistic Director; Alan Stacey,
Executive Director) and the National Theatre (Rufus Norris, Artistic
Director; Lisa Burger, Executive Director) at the Dorfman Theatre on
September 1, 2015, after which it transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre in
the West End of London on March 15, 2016. It was directed by Jeremy
Herrin, the scenic design was by Bunny Christie, the lighting design
was by James Farncombe, the sound design was by Tom Gibbons, the
costume design was by Christina Cunningham, the video design was
by Andrzej Goulding, the movement director was Polly Bennett, and
the composer was Matthew Herbert. The cast was as follows:

EMMA ........................................................................... Denise Gough

PAUL/DAD ............................................................ Kevin McMonagle
FOSTER ........................................................................... Alistair Cope
DOCTOR/MUM ........................................................ Barbara Marten
MARK ........................................................ Nathaniel Martello-White
MEREDITH ..................................................................... Sally George
T ........................................................................... Jacob James Beswick
JODI ................................................................................ Jacqui Dubois
SHAUN ................................................................... Nari Blair-Mangat
LAURA ..................................................................... Laura Woodward

The American premiere of PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS was

produced by St. Ann’s Warehouse, in collaboration with the National
Theatre and Headlong Theatre Company, in October 2017, with the
same creative team. The cast was as follows:

EMMA ........................................................................... Denise Gough

PAUL/DAD ............................................................ Kevin McMonagle
FOSTER ........................................................................... Alistair Cope
DOCTOR/MUM ........................................................ Barbara Marten
MARK ........................................................ Nathaniel Martello-White
CHARLOTTE ...................................................... Charlotte Gascoyne
T ........................................................................... Jacob James Beswick
JODI ................................................................................ Jacqui Dubois
SHAUN ............................................................................ Himesh Patel
LAURA ..................................................................... Laura Woodward
4
 CHARACTERS
(In order of appearance)

EMMA
KONSTANTIN
STAGE MANAGER
CREW MEMBERS
CAST MEMBERS
UNDERSTUDY
DRESSERS
MEN
PAUL
FOSTER
NURSES
DOCTOR
THERAPIST
MARK
CHARLOTTE
T
JODI
SHAUN
LAURA
EMMAS
CLUBBERS
YOUNG WOMAN

5
 DRESSERS
WOMAN
PARAMEDICS
DOCTORS
NURSE
MEDICAL STAFF
DAD
MUM
VOICE
ACTRESSES
ACTRESS

The Group are ethnically diverse, of different classes and ages.

A forward slash ( / ) marks the point of interruption in overlapping

dialogue.

An ellipsis (…) on a separate line denotes a brief active silence, the

length of which is to be determined by context.

6
 PEOPLE, PLACES
AND THINGS
ACT ONE

As the lights fade, the sounds of a theatre auditorium increase.

Mobile phones, coughing, chattering and general sounds of
anticipation. It builds to a cacophony.
Darkness. Chaos.
Suddenly the lights snap up and the sounds cease. We are in
the same theatre, but at a different time. A play is in progress,
the final act of Chekhov’s The Seagull. A Naturalistic, period
set of a study which was once a drawing-room. Doors left
and right. A French door opens onto a terrace. It is raining.
Evening. It is dark. One shaded lamp is alight. Trees rustle
outside and wind howls softly in the chimneys.
Emma is playing Nina Zarechnaya. Her hair is wet. She has
been crying. She sits on an ottoman in the centre of the stage
next to Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev. The lights have
snapped up mid-sentence.

KONSTANTIN. for ninety years on this earth. My youth robbed

from me.
Emma looks around the stage and out into the auditorium. It
is as if she’s just come to and is trying to establish where she is.
I’ve cursed you Nina. Ripped up your photographs and letters.
But it’s no use. I see your face everywhere. I say your name. I
kiss the ground you walk on. I’m bound to you forever. And
now you’re here.
He waits for Emma to speak. After a while he decides that

7
 she’s not going to say her line, so continues.
I’m sad. Lonely. Utterly alone and cold as if I’ve been imprisoned
underground. And everything I write is so bleak.
Konstantin takes Emma’s hand.
Nina. Stay here. I beg you. Stay here or let me go with you.
For a moment, Emma looks into Konstantin’s eyes. She looks
down at their interlocked hands.
…
Nina?
Suddenly, Emma stands and quickly prepares to leave, grabbing
her coat and putting it on.
Nina, for God’s sake, Nina.
EMMA. My carriage is waiting. Don’t walk me out. Can I have some
water?
KONSTANTIN. Where will you go?
He pours some water.
EMMA. Is Irina Arkadin here?
KONSTANTIN. Yes. Uncle was taken ill and we telegraphed / for her.
Emma advances to Konstantin angrily, interrupting him.
EMMA. Why did you say you worship the ground I walk on?
Death. Death is what I deserve.
Emma doubles over. Konstantin doesn’t know what to do.
He stands still, holding the water. He looks off into the wings.
I’m so tired. I need to sleep. I’m a seagull. No that’s not right.
I’m an actress.
Laughter in the wings. Emma looks up.
He’s here too isn’t he?
Emma laughs.
Of course. It doesn’t matter.
She walks to Konstantin and takes the water from him.
He didn’t believe in the stage. He laughed at me. I don’t believe
in it either. Not now.
8
 As Emma talks her acting becomes more genuine. She is
talking less in character and more as herself. She is sincere,
vivid, compelling. She doesn’t slur her words.
Not now that I’ve had real problems. Real things have happened.
My heart is broken. I don’t know what to do with my hands
when I’m onstage. I’m not real. I’m a seagull. No, that’s wrong.
The lamp flickers. Emma notices it. Konstantin doesn’t.
You shot a seagull. Do you remember? Earlier in the play?
Emma laughs.
I mean the story, I mean
long ago you shot a
that’s wrong too. Not you. What was I saying? I was talking
about the theatre. I love acting. I’m a real actress. I was a real
actress. Will you come and see me when I’m a real actress? I’m
different now. And I feel better and better every day. You don’t
need to worry about me anymore. I have
faith.
Emma hears something. She is twitchy.
KONSTANTIN. Nina,
EMMA. things don’t hurt me so much anymore. I’m not afraid. I’m
The lights fade around her slightly. The Naturalistic sounds
fade too and for a moment there’s something more ominous
and subjective. A low rumble. A whine of tinnitus.
…
I’m a
Emma looks up as if she’s been daydreaming and just coming
to. The sounds have returned to normal.
…
She looks around, seemingly unaware of where she is.
KONSTANTIN. Nina?
Emma’s physicality changes. She drops the water without
realising it.

9
 Nina?
Er…
Emma looks into the auditorium. She walks towards the
edge of the stage and peers into the darkness at the audience.
She moves out of her light. She pulls her wig off. She has very
different hair underneath.
Nina?
The lights flicker. Her nose starts bleeding, heavily. She touches
the blood and looks at it, fascinated.
Emma?
Emma?
Emma is about to step off the edge of the stage. A stage
manager hurries on from the wings and takes Emma by the
arm. Sounds offstage. The scenery starts moving, revealing
crew members, props tables, cables and the back wall of the
theatre. Costumed cast members of The Seagull watch what’s
happening, including an understudy dressed exactly like Emma.
Emma looks at her, not sure what she’s seeing. A dresser wipes
the blood from Emma’s face. Another helps her into a jacket.
Emma is uncooperative. The furniture is taken off into the
wings. The lights scroll through various colours. Naturalistic
sounds, including a gunshot, play, then begin to repeat rhyth-
mically. Emma can see a man in the distance, dancing under
a flashing light. She thinks she’s in a nightclub, but knows that
isn’t possible. Men suddenly surround her. A pill is put onto her
tongue. She takes someone’s drink and downs it. She snatches
a phone from someone. She takes someone’s cigarette. She
pushes the men away, violently. They leave. She is alone, holding
the phone to her ear and trying to light the cigarette. She is in
the reception of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. The
dance music continues faintly, coming from a radio on the
reception desk. There’s a row of plastic chairs in front of a
window next to which sit Emma’s bags.
EMMA. Just this one thing can you please do this one thing for me
please I’m just asking for

10
 Emma looks around at her new surroundings, a little surprised
to find herself there. She listens to the voice on the phone and
remembers what she’s doing.
listen to me listen to me okay alright please this is important to
me I’m trying to do something for once in my life do something
for myself and
don’t be like that why do you have to be like that no, listen please
for a second because right now you’re being a complete cunt.
Well I’m sorry you hate that word, that’s really unfortunate because
in one syllable it so perfectly describes your entire personality.
She throws the lighter down and searches in her bag for another.
Look, obviously I called the wrong person. Obviously you’re unable
to help me, you can’t give me half an hour to do something that
could save my life.
She stops searching.
Yes it is that serious.
I’m not being dramatic. That’s such a cunty thing to say.
I’ll stop calling you a cunt when you stop being a cunt.
Listen,
…
Mum.
…
Mum, please, listen to me for a second.
You’re already in my flat, just
She starts searching again.
there’s a large, clear-plastic box in the hallway on the
like a big, plastic
box
it’s see-through, it’s
I don’t know how else to describe it.

11
 PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS
by Duncan Macmillan
5M, 5W (doubling, flexible casting)

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?

“…a glittering paean to booze and drugs delivered as a visceral, mournful howl
to the skies. The play’s most audacious trick is that it does not pretend that there
aren’t some serious upsides to hedonism.” —The Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Besides being a portrait of addiction and recovery, [PEOPLE, PLACES AND

THINGS] is perceptive about trauma and its consequences, as well as the roles
so many of us adopt in order to deflect the truth.”
—Evening Standard (London)

“…a vibrant play that draws parallels between theatre and rehab… Macmillan
also offers a critique of a society in which addiction is partly a response to the
surrounding chaos, and where the generic uplift of marketing-speak pervades
everything from politics to religion.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Generous-spirited, with a strong streak of irreverent, darkly humane humour,

the play…has a thoughtful, shifting ambivalence that suits a problem where the
solutions can only ever be provisional and the amends inadequate.”
—The Independent (London)

Also by Duncan Macmillan

1984 (Icke)
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
LUNGS

DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC.

PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS back cover.indd 1 10/25/2017 10:41:46 AM