Intoxicating love 

Emma by Slengesol and Elgesem is a play about how difficult it can be to love someone with a substance abuse problem.

Emma is a show about a girl who loves to go out and party with her friends. One day after her night out, she meets Leo at MC Donalds. They fall head over heels for each other, and soon after they move in together. But little does Emma know what Leo is struggling with.

One day they go out partying, Emma wants to go home, but Leo doesn't want to go. Emma is told by Leo to sit down and wait a bit. She ends up falling asleep and Leo lets her sleep on the floor. This leads to a serious discussion and Emma sees a side of Leo she's never seen before. He promises to get better and Emma trusts Leo and believes what he says.

Some time later, Emma is celebrating her birthday and is looking forward to spending the evening with Leo. When the party starts and all her friends have arrived, Leo is nowhere to be seen. Towards the end Leo bursts in and crashes the party. Emma feels humiliated and tells Leo that this must end. Leo repeatedly says that he'll be better for Emma, but does he really?

Emma was an interesting and educational performance with an important message. Even though we personally can't relate to the problem they convey in the performance, we still understand how serious and severe this problem is from what they present. They are very good at using light and sound to emphasize the action. It's a very important topic that they manage to convey well, but the piece can get a little confusing at times. They used a lot of big metaphors and the set design was very much up to interpretation, so it made some scenes a little unclear.

We think that this performance is suitable for high school students because it can be easier to relate to the theme, and to understand the play. Even though there were no extras in the play, they used the audience well to fill the room. All in all, the performance was good and highlighted an important theme, but was not always easy to understand.