Drugs and alcohol have never let me down. They have always loved me.

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

People, Places & Things : Trafalgar Theatre

Taking a very welcome break from musicals, I went to see this on account of the good reviews and, quite obviously, because Denise Gough was very good in Andor (which is, surprisingly, a Star Wars TV show that's actually worth watching - it's actually got some plot for starters!). Apart from that, I didn't have a clue what I'd let myself in for as I headed along to the Trafalgar Theatre for my second trip in as many months - and the stage didn't exactly go out of its way to help me out (excuse the blur, but several attempts did no better than this - and some were considerably worse).

The play follows the central character (who goes by several names throughout the show, but let's call her Emma) who is an addict attempting to straighten herself out and it investigates the impact of her addiction and treatment on those around her. Or does it? A lot of the play is presented in a deliberately confusing or misleading manner - I assume to reflect both the perception of the addict and the reliability of their narration (but who knows, eh?).

So you'd have to be in the mood for something that isn't going to spoon feed you, but I thought it worked its way to a satisfying (if inconclusive) ending which doesn't pull any punches in some of the dialogue. I wasn't entirely convinced by the pacing in some parts of the play - but I'm sure there were reasons for it that someone will tell me I just don't understand. It does however has some memorable scenes which are really well staged - there's some really clever stuff happening up there, particularly during a detox scene where multiple versions of the central character appear on stage from various unexpected locations. It was also, to my surprise, considerably funnier than you might expect - there were some proper chuckles in there.

What it also undoubtedly has is a truly excellent central performance - Denise puts herself and us through the wringer as she denies, accepts or fights against every aspect of her situation. She won an Olivier award for the role as a relative unknown back in 2015 - this is the second time she's brought it back to London and I'm very glad I caught it, for her performance as much as anything else. She got a lengthy standing ovation from most of the audience last night which was fully deserved.

Other actors of note for me were Sinéad Cusack as Emma's therapist and mother (two very different roles) and Malachi Kirby as Mark and Danny Kirrane as Foster who both make the transition at the hospital from patient to support staff. There's quite a lot of people on stage at times, but very few of the roles are fleshed out much beyond that lot, which feels a bit of a shame but you're very much concentrating on the central character.

I thought this was a good play with some great elements and an outstanding central performance - if you like your theatre to be challenging but not too challenging with plenty of aspects worthy of discussion, then this will tick those boxes. It's on for the next six weeks and there are a surprising number of tickets still available considering how full the theatre was last night, so I'd suggest it's well worth a visit.

Machinal - A very enjoyable evening out