As the play opens we are in the nineteenth century with actors in Victorian costume. Is this a play about addiction through the centuries starting with the Victorians’ penchant for laudanum? But no, the scene is from Chekhov’s The Seagull with the actress playing Nina (Denise Gough) at breaking point.

The gauze backdrop falls and we switch to a 21st century scene.  The music is deafening and tectonic, people are dancing.  Nina (Denise Gough) or Emma as she tells us is her real name, snorts a line of cocaine and is on the phone to her mother asking her to box up all the drugs, alcohol, prescription medicines and other substances in her flat. Emma is about to be admitted to the rehab unit to get clean. She is asked to hand over her laptop, phone and any electronic devices for ordering supplies while in rehab. A patient Paul (Kevin McMonagle) stripped to the waist with “The End” scrawled on his torso creates confusion in the reception area.

Emma, who says her name is Nina after hearing that complete honesty is called for, is asked what she might have consumed in the last 48 hours. She lists a large quantity of benzodiazepine which she says she was prescribed by four different general practitioners, alcohol, cannabis and several other substances. “How did you get here today Nina?” asks the member of staff Foster (Danny Kirrane). “I drove,” says Emma in a humorous moment.

The doctor (Sinead Cusack) then shocks us with a stool sample in a kidney shaped medical plastic container which she takes a bite out of. It’s her falafel lunch! The doctor takes a medical history from Emma and she refuses the prescription medicine offered to get her off the addiction forming drugs and alcohol.