Writers: Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe
Directors: Jeremy Herrin and Duncan Macmillan
Plays built around audience participation with changing casts have become important commercial ventures for theatres, hoping they can convince audiences to return multiple times to see the show from a different point of view. But they all have a formula, and while Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing, co-written with Jonny Donahoe, revived @sohoplace may be over a decade old, the concept of constructing a story by using a single actor to feed lines and create scenarios in which ad libbing and improvisation are tightly controlled has now become more commonplace. Performed by Lenny Henry for the first month, there is much to enjoy in this revival co-directed by Jeremy Herrin and Macmillan, but the show never breaks free of its formulaic feel.
When aged seven, the speaker discovers his mother has attempted suicide during a silent trip to the hospital. To help her, they create a list of brilliant things in the world in the hope that they will cheer her up. But over the years and decades that follow, the list may grow, but the mother’s deep depressions endure, and as the speaker enters adulthood, they too discover that periods of unhappiness are more commonplace.
There is a huge amount of set-up required to make Every Brilliant Thing work and as you take your seat, the star of the evening is busily approaching audience members to play speaking roles in the show ranging from reading out particular entries from the list of brilliant things to playing more substantial characters including an influential teacher and, later, a significant partner. Visiting all tiers of the @sohoplace auditorium, where voices will appear when given a numerical cue, there is much for the stage management team to do just to make every show workable in the 30 minutes once the house opens.
The outcome delivers moments of entertainment as any unscheduled interaction with members of the public inevitably does, and Henry jokes with a beleaguered-looking volunteer not to mime when playing his father and then cannot decide whether a hug or a handshake is a suitable end to their encounter. Macmillan and Donahoe’s approach creates engagement as the room reacts to the items on the list, which grows from 1,000 to 800,000 to over a million during the lifetime of the character, picked up and shared with others as his own life develops.
The plot itself is relatively slight and never tries to get inside the long-term effects or triggers of depression for the character’s mother, the near silence of his father or even explains the breakdown of the relationship with partner Sam. It remains almost entirely from the speaker’s perspective. Henry is fully in control of the unfolding narrative, picking up the moments of collaboration and carefully managing scenarios where he is interacting with the public and crew members supplying props, always vocally grateful and supportive of their input.
But that is the sticking point for Every Brilliant Thing and all the shows like it; it does feel managed rather than performed, the story secondary to the technique and the effort it takes to stage the show every single night.
Runs until 8 November 2025
