The Things Around Us: the one-man show leaving Boston laughing and stunned
A trumpet. A loop pedal. One person on stage. That is the entire setup for The Things Around Us, a 90-minute one-person show that somehow manages to feel bigger than a full orchestra and more personal than a conversation you were not supposed to overhear.
Dates: February 20–22, 2026
Venue: Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage
Address: 559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111
Presented by ArtsEmerson, The Things Around Us runs for just four performances, February 20–22, 2026, at the Emerson Paramount Center, on the Robert J. Orchard Stage. It is written, composed, and performed by Ahamefule J. Oluo, and it is exactly as stripped down as it sounds.
Oluo builds the entire world of the show live, in real time. Using a trumpet, his voice, and looping technology, he layers rhythm, melody, and sound onstage, constructing full musical landscapes piece by piece. There is no band hiding in the wings. No prerecorded safety net. Just accumulation, repetition, and timing.
What makes it work is the storytelling. The show moves through personal anecdotes that land funny first, then deepen. One moment you are laughing. The next, you realize something uncomfortably honest has slipped in with the joke. The effect is intimate without being sentimental, and playful without being lightweight.
The Things Around Us is the third part of Oluo’s trilogy, following Now I’m Fine and Susan. Like the earlier works, it takes ordinary moments and sounds and treats them as raw material. The premise is simple. What we live with every day is stranger, funnier, and more moving than we usually notice.
The venue matters here. The Robert J. Orchard Stage is close and architectural, designed to make an audience feel present rather than hidden. Oluo has said the space itself becomes part of the performance, shaping how the sound travels and how the stories land. This is not background entertainment. It asks you to sit still and pay attention.
ArtsEmerson is also offering a Play Reading Book Club connected to the production, a four-week community program where participants read the text together, discuss it with a teaching artist, then attend a performance as a group. It is designed to make the show more accessible, not more academic, and includes a private reception with artists from the production.
Tickets start at $27.50, with discounts available for groups of ten or more. There are only four performances. Once they are gone, they are gone.
Tickets
