Duncan Macmillan Play in Bulgarian World Premiere
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS at State Theatre Ruse

Many of the great plays by British author Duncan Macmillan deal with current socio-political issues: LUNGS is about parenthood, EVERY BRILLIANT THING is about the issue of suicidal behaviour, and about addiction and recovery is

PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS.

 

In the latter, the successful author intended to write a great female character, a play with a woman at the centre, a woman as ‘heroine’, which the head of the Ruse State Theatre, director BOIAN IVANOV, has taken on as a Bulgarian world premiere.

 

One wonders what this title means? ‘People, Places and Things’ are all special triggers that can lead to a relapse in addicts and should therefore be avoided. So if you understand the connection between these triggers and drug use, it may be possible to break the pattern.

 

The play also depicts the reality of life in this production; it is a contemporary portrait of an addict that is seriously realised on stage.

 

In most cases, an addict is only recognised when he/she has become a junkie, when the addiction has completely taken hold of him. At this point, we become witnesses:

The self-destructive protagonist Emma (interpreted in a multi-layered way by EVA DANAILOVA, new to the Ruse ensemble) has run her life down and loses her commitment through blackouts and breakdowns on the open stage. She is forced to undergo therapy.

 

The attempt to get off drugs fails. Emma has forgotten what it means to be part of a community and to deal soberly with other people and herself, all things that therapy demands of her.

 

However, Emma defies the demands of the therapist (YASENA GOSPODINOVA in multiple roles) to become aware of herself during drug rehab.

The truth is recognising reality. The opposite of this is untruth or illusion:

For Emma, truth does not exist, nothing is real. She is unable to admit this and confront her addiction. She takes refuge once again in intoxication, in addiction, building up a colourful, glamorous self in her imagination, in changing, delusional ideas about life and the world.

 

Addiction is a frightening way out, a downward spiral into the abyss. We all stare into it to some degree, but here we see the desperate attempts of the fallen to escape their own demons.

 

NICOLE TRENDAFILOVA's minimalist set design allows the play to move quickly from theatre within theatre, from reality to addictive fantasy. Ivanov also achieves phantasmagoria in the suspense-generating sound, light and video design (HRISTO NAMLIEV, TODOR TODOROV) through the wild appearance of numerous Emmas, who visualise the extreme worlds of the addicts for the audience (choreography by ALEXANDER MANDZHUKOV). Danailiova's interpretation of the immersive script that Macmillan offers in his description of Emma's performance is one of the strong elements of this piece.

 

An everyday story, but not an everyday play, which Bulgarian audiences have been eager to see since the successful premiere in Ruse and the equally strong repeat performance in the capital Sofia: Emma is what a junkie is, but on the other hand and equally she is a completely normal woman. She is like us, and she is like the actors we see in the evening, with the only exception that she came into contact with drugs at a certain point in her life and drifted into the relieving world of intoxication due to her mental state.

 

Once again, Boian Ivanov succeeds with skill and socio-psychological empathy in doing justice to the author, without voyeuristically indulging in alcoholic excesses, but through his ability and willingness to recognise, understand and empathise with the feelings, emotions, thoughts, motives and personality traits of another person.

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