People are Things is a devised work in three parts, primarily based on –and featuring excerpts from– Nina Bouraoui’s Otages. Whether it is in a glasshouse, a garden, or a world of sound and light, Sylvie is a woman like any other. She does not cry when her husband leaves her; in fact, she does not say a word – that is, until she slips a knife in her bag, before heading out to work.

As she navigates presence, absence and their respective boundaries, Sylvie finds herself on the edge of the world: although no one really gets hurt, this story deals in all-absorbing violence, the silent kind. The kind which Sylvie finds in every area of her life, her marriage, her house, her employer – an existential violence she attempts (and fails) to contain and define. People Are Things is a study of silence. The aura of it; the sound it might long for at night.

Performed by Audrey Andrews, A. Hadley Gorsline, Sophia Karaz, Grace Lutenske and Sophia Santos Ufkes

Directing BFA Capstone, University of Michigan

Show Pictures by Ellie Vice / Promotional Pictures by Tiara Partsch