★★★★☆ DEM Productions, Trafalgar Studios
Dust is a bold, honest and heartbreaking one woman show about mental health, depression and the aftermath of a suicide.

Alice struggles with mental health and one day she gives up and kills herself, but she’s stuck. She’s like a fly on the wall, in-between worlds, watching the aftermath of her death and the effects it has on the people around her. We first meet her on the mortuary slab, where she examines her dead body, almost like she’s looking at someone else. We’re with her when she’s at her own funeral, when she commits suicide and when she wants to hug her parents.
There a light and funny times during the play, where Alice jokingly talks about things in her old life but the dark and more intense scenes, such as her suicide outweigh the lightheartedness. In combination with the mirrored stage by Anna Reid and the direction by Sarah Joyce, the show leaves an aftertaste of feeling lonely, vulnerable and weak.

The show itself has a millennial feel to it, not only because Alice is a typical millennial but it also focuses on issues like the addiction to smartphone and the constant urge to check social media that we all know to well.
Milly Thomas’s raw, vulnerable and more than honest performance transfixes the audience. I kept catching myself trying to hold my breath during certain scenes. The overall effect of the production is so powerful that it goes beyond thinking about it afterwards. It almost had a physical effect on me while watching it, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced when watching a show.
Dust runs at Trafalgar Studios until 13 October. Tickets are available here