PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS
Duncan Macmillan
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS
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Copyright © Duncan Macmillan, 2015
Duncan Macmillan is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights.
All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited., Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London, W1F 8GQ ([email protected]). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 9781783199099
EPUB ISBN: 9781783199105
Cover Photography by John Spinks
Design by National Theatre Graphic Design Studio
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by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
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Contents
Act One
Act Two
By The Same Author
People, Places and Things
a new play by Duncan Macmillan
a co-production between the National Theatre and Headlong
Emma DENISE GOUGH
Paul / Dad KEVIN McMONAGLE
Doctor / Therapist / Mum BARBARA MARTEN
Mark NATHANIEL MARTELLO-WHITE
Foster ALISTAIR COPE
Meredith / Ensemble SALLY GEORGE
T / Ensemble JACOB JAMES BESWICK
Jodi / Ensemble JACQUI DUBOIS
Shaun / Ensemble NARI BLAIR-MANGAT
Laura / Ensemble LAURA WOODWARD
Director JEREMY HERRIN
Set Designer BUNNY CHRISTIE
Costume Designer CHRISTINA CUNNINGHAM
Lighting Designer JAMES FARNCOMBE
Music MATTHEW HERBERT
Sound Designer TOM GIBBONS
Movement POLLY BENNETT
Video/Projection Designer ANDRZEJ GOULDING
Company Voice Work JEANNETTE NELSON
Dialect Coach RICHARD RYDER
Staff Director HOLLY RACE ROUGHAN
WORLD PREMIERE
Dorfman Theatre 1 September 2015
The National Theatre is dedicated to making the very best theatre and sharing it with as many people as possible.
We stage up to 30 productions at our South Bank home each year, ranging from re-imagined classics – such as Greek tragedy and Shakespeare – to modern masterpieces and new work by contemporary writers and theatre-makers. The work we make strives to be as open, as diverse, as collaborative and as national as possible. Much of that new work is researched and developed at the NT Studio: we are committed to nurturing innovative work from new writers, directors, creative artists and performers. Equally, we are committed to education, with a wide-ranging Learning programme for all ages in our new Clore Learning Centre and in schools and communities across the UK.
The National’s work is also seen on tour throughout the UK and internationally, and in collaborations and co-productions with regional theatres. Popular shows transfer to the West End and occasionally to Broadway; and through the National Theatre Live programme, we broadcast live performances to 2,000 cinemas in 50 countries around the world. From September 2015, National Theatre: On Demand in Schools will make three acclaimed, curriculum-linked productions free to stream on demand in every secondary school in the country. Online, the NT offers a rich variety of innovative digital content on every aspect of theatre.
We do all we can to keep ticket prices affordable and to reach a wide audience, and use our public funding to maintain artistic risk-taking, accessibility and diversity.
nationaltheatre.org.uk
Characters
EMMA
KONSTANTIN
STAGE
MANAGER
CREW
MEMBERS
CAST
MEMBERS
UNDERSTUDY
DRESSERS
MEN
PAUL
FOSTER
NURSES
DOCTOR
THERAPIST
MARK
MEREDITH
T
JODI
SHAUN
LAURA
EMMAS
CLUBBERS
YOUNG
WOMAN
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.
Acknowledgements
Lots of people helped make this play happen, by reading drafts, helping with research, taking part in read-throughs or by providing childcare while I worked. The names of many of them appear in the production credits. Many others wish to remain anonymous. I’d like to thank the generosity of many who told me their own stories, allowed me to attend meetings and treatment facilities, provided links and books and other resources. Thanks in particular to Neil Brener and the staff of the Priory and everyone at the Freedom Recovery Centre, Catford.
Jeremy Herrin, Henny Finch, Stephen Daly, Liz Eddy, Debbie Farquar, Sarah Grochala and all at Headlong. Rufus Norris, Tessa Ross, Ben Power and Emily McLaughlin and all at the NT and NT Studio. Lyndsey Turner. Robert Icke. Lennox Thomas. Daniel Raggett. Katie Mitchell. Chloe Lamford. Matthew Herbert. Steve Marmion. Nina Steiger. Ally Gipps. Simon McBurney. Beth Macmillan. Simon Vinnicombe. Stephen Daldry. Clare Lizzimore. Jon and NoraLee Sedmak. Becki Willmore. Ella Kearns Concannon. Rachel Taylor, Kirsten Foster and Mel Kenyon. Effie Woods and Marlowe Macmillan.
For my Sisters
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 window opens onto a terrace. It is raining.
Evening. One shaded lamp is alight. It is dark. Trees rustle outside and wind howls softly in the chimneys.
EMMA is playing Nina Zarechny. 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 snap up mid-sentence.
KONSTANTIN: for ninety years on this earth. My youth robbed from me.
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.
NINA: What is he talking about? Why is he talking like this?
KONSTANTIN: 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.
As EMMA talks her acting becomes more genuine. She is talking less in character and more as herself.
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 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.
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. EMMA puts her hands in the air and sways. Naturalistic sounds, including a gunshot play, then begin to repeat rhythmically. She can see a man in the distance, dancing under a flashing light. She thinks she’s in a nightclub. 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. The lights have changed again. 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
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.
Mum you’re already
She starts searching again.
you’re already in my flat, just
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.
Yeah, that’s just unread post. Tip it out.
I don’t know, the floor. It’s bills mum. I’ll deal with it when I get home.
Okay now fill the box with anything that looks
you know,
medical or
yes, any alcohol, of course yes, and anything that looks like drugs or
She finds a small clear plastic bag of powder. She looks around.
okay.
,
Aware of her surroundings, she quickly pours out the powder onto the seat of a chair and makes a few lines with a fingernail.
On the coffee table in the living room, there’s a wooden box. You see it? That’s the one. Don’t look inside, just chuck it.
Yes it’s the one dad got me. I know that but
that’s not what I’ve used it for.
She holds the phone away from her and snorts the powder.
For a moment, the lights in the room glow brighter, the music on the radio slows down and all other sounds cease, then everything speeds up to catch up to reality.
She puts the phone back to her ear.
Just
will you please just chuck it out?
She turns up the radio a little and moves slightly to the music.
Okay, and in the kitchen,
you found all that? Great.
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
She cracks her knuckles and rolls her head around her shoulders. She stretches the muscles in her face.
And the cupboard under the sink? No on the left of
okay good.
She rummages in her bag again.
And the oven?
Okay open the oven.
Because I don’t use it for
mum, I don’t cook.
She finds her lighter.
Put it in the box with the rest of it.
A loud crash nearby. Shouting. EMMA looks in the direction of the sound but can’t see anything. She lights the cigarette.
And then the bathroom, but, mum, listen
I want you to just
,
don’t be shocked okay?
EMMA sits down on one of the plastic chairs. She listens to her mother.
,
She puts the phone on the seat next to her and rubs her eyes with both hands.
She listens to the rain. She twists around in the seat and looks out of the window.
She looks at one of her hands, checking for tremors. She makes a fist then relaxes it again.
She stretches out her legs. She moves her jaw.
,
She picks the phone up and continues to listen.
,
That’s why I’m here mum.
I am.
I am.
I’m trying to get myself well.
She rubs her nostrils and takes another drag on her cigarette.
,
No I’m not smoking.
,
Mum, I really need you to
Another crash. A light begins to flash above reception. A tone sounds each time it alights.
,
please.
More sounds, things being overturned. Shouting.
,
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
,
Mum, / thank you.
The doors to the clinic burst open and a man, PAUL, rushes into the room. He is shirtless. He has the words ‘THE END’ written on his torso. His eyes are wide. One of his hands is bleeding heavily, dripping blood. He speaks directly to EMMA. EMMA stays still.
PAUL: They’re trying to take it all out from us drain our blood and use it for gold this is gold and they’re scared of its power and they’re right they’re right they’re right they should be scared. They should be TERRIFIED.
People, Places & Things Page 1