People, Places and Things, theatre review: Rehab drama’s fearless star Denise Gough has us hooked

This is a triumph for Denise Gough, who delivers an emotionally shattering performance, says Henry Hitchings
Confusion, hostility and repressed tenderness: Denise Gough with Jacqui Dubois and Sally George
Johan Persson
Henry Hitchings2 September 2015

Denise Gough can seem like one of theatre’s secret marvels, a brilliant performer whose skill has somehow failed to turn her into a household name. Here she’s as good as she’s ever been — fierce and fearless as Emma, an actor grappling desperately with addiction to drugs and alcohol.

When we first see Emma she’s in the middle of ruining a production of Chekhov’s The Seagull. She blunders around, embarrassing her co-star with her inability to tell the difference between the story she’s in and her own increasingly chaotic life. Rehab swiftly follows, but she is resistant to the spiritual aspect of the 12-step programme, which she likens to a cult.

Emma is a mix of spiky intelligence, confusion, hostility and repressed tenderness. As she chafes against the conventions of group therapy, there’s an aching vulnerability in her arrogance and a sullen neediness in her rage. Gough revels in her complexity, and Duncan Macmillan’s play is a tremendous vehicle for her. But it is more than that. Besides being a portrait of addiction and recovery, it’s perceptive about trauma and its consequences, as well as the roles so many of us adopt in order to deflect the truth.

Director Jeremy Herrin unleashes a barrage of light and sound to convey Emma’s delusions — first her drug-addled frenzy, and later the seizures and hallucinations caused by withdrawal. But there are also moments of finely controlled stillness in this absorbing production.

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1/50

Poised support comes from Barbara Marten — in three roles as Emma’s doctor, therapist and mother — and Nathaniel Martello-White as a fellow addict whose candour infuriates and inspires her. But this is above all a triumph for Denise Gough, who delivers an emotionally shattering performance that’s also exemplary in its rigour.

Until Nov 4 (020 7452 3000, nationaltheatre.org.uk)

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