Tag Archives: Milly Thomas

Dust – 5 Stars

Dust

Dust

Trafalgar Studios

Reviewed – 7th September 2018

★★★★★

“The writing is sensational; Thomas’ performance more so.”

 

Alice? Who the f**k is Alice? She’s the girl next door, of course. She’s the girl who’s doing fine. You know she is because she’s always telling you “I’m fine”. She’s also sassy. But she’s a bitch, a misanthrope. A bit too promiscuous. She’s funny. But sometimes sad. She’s taken her sadness and turned it into anger. She’s the girl you don’t quite understand. She’s the girl you don’t want to understand, the girl whose best friend has asked her to move out and go back home, the girl whose parents worry about but don’t ask too many questions. She’s Alice, the girl you’ve got to get used to not living next door to.

She’s the girl who is dead.

Alice is the protagonist of “Dust”, written and performed by Milly Thomas. On paper, the premise of a one-woman show about depression is a bit of a bleak prospect. Yet it is immediately clear why this show has made such a rapid journey from Edinburgh, to London’s Soho Theatre and now into the West End, picking up awards on the way. The writing is sensational; Thomas’ performance more so. Shockingly unrestrained, fearless and honest, this is theatre that makes you laugh out loud and fight back tears in the same breath.

Alice emerges at the start of the play from a mortuary slab. Having just killed herself she now has to witness the aftermath and the impact on her family and friends. From her vantage point she watches, and comments. Thomas’ gift for story telling is in the detail and we are presented with a very vivid picture of Alice in both life and death. This never feels like a one-woman show as Alice imitates the other characters, switching accents and personalities within a whisper, running the gamut of emotions, and then back to herself. The ghost. Watching. And still trying to make sense of it all.

It is mesmerising.

It is a tragedy and a comedy rolled into one, where descriptions of graphic sex lie alongside family photos, where Alice’s struggle to come to terms with her own suicide grapples with her need to read her friends’ Facebook posts about it. Tirades and curses share the same phrase with sharp one-liners and heart-wrenching pleas for understanding. But what is missing, and this is undoubtedly intentional, is that we are given no explanation. Alice never takes us back to search for an underlying cause for her depression. There is no childhood trauma, no abuse. In short, we get no back story whatsoever.

Which is precisely the point. Like death, depression has no prejudice. It can happen to anyone. Often there is no reason. Yet there is also no reason why those afflicted should end up like Alice. This is what Milly Thomas’ outstanding production is telling us, and I hope it encourages people to discuss the issues, even if we never fully understand the nature of depression. Thomas implores us to “talk to each other – not talking is killing us.” This is an absolute must see for anybody who is affected, directly or indirectly, by depression.

Correction: this is an absolute must see for anybody.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Richard Southgate

 


Dust

Trafalgar Studios until 13th October

 

 

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Dust – 5 Stars

Dust

Dust

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 23rd February

★★★★★

“Thomas paints a vivid environment, making Anna Reid’s intentionally bare set come alive”

 

It’s not an easy task to create and then try to promote a show that features depression, suicide, and a funeral, as a good time to be had at the theatre. However, Milly Thomas, the writer, performer and all-round star in the making, has succeeded in her latest triumph, Dust. Having sold out to rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, it now makes its transfer to London, displaying the dark and (who would have known) lighter sides of killing yourself. With brutal honesty, humour and heartache, Thomas delivers an exceptional one-woman, yet, multi-character, show that is faultless in its writing and, its execution.

Alice (Milly Thomas) inspects a body as it lies on a metal, wheelie table in the morgue. It’s her body. She’s dead. Alice has killed herself that day. She decides that life is not worth living anymore. Yet, she is stuck in her own universe, invisible to the rest of the world, watching the aftermath of her suicide and the effect it has taken upon her family and friends. For better or for worse, her death has made an impact. It has changed the people that she knew. Once the novelty of being dead has worn off, Alice begins to realise that death may not have been the solution that she was hoping for.

There are so many great things about Dust that Milly Thomas offers, for example, demonstrating the comical and bizarre situations that can surround death. Thomas makes the audience laugh just as much, if not more so, than she does making them feel uncomfortable. Her caustic candidness can be a little near the knuckle or graphic to watch, but you have to remember it is mainly your imagination that is filling in the horrific detail. Thomas paints a vivid environment, making Anna Reid’s intentionally bare set come alive. With the addition of her brilliant characterisations of each member of Alice’s family and friends, Thomas creates the illusion of a large-scale production all on the strength of her detailed storytelling. You forget that it is just one person up on stage.

What is probably most commendable about this production is the fact that it is shining light on the issues of mental health and depression, which are still such taboo topics. It is certainly not represented enough on stage. Milly Thomas contributes nuanced arguments and perceptions that surround the act of suicide, whilst delivering an electrifyingly energetic visual spectacular.

 

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by The Other Richard

 

Soho Theatre thespyinthestalls

 

Dust

Soho Theatre until 17th March

 

Mind

 

 

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