One man stands at the center, looking back and forward trying to find meaning about life as it swiftly flies by. Looking at great loss and depression, he knows he needs strong inner force to determine why it’s worth going on.
He tries to deal with his mother’s suicide attempts, clinging to treasuring university days, and to falling in love for the first time, trying to find a way out of the darkness by starting lists, through them hoping to shed light on how to cherish the elements of every day. The essence of Every Brilliant Thing.
As if reaching out to anyone within earshot at Bluebarn, he ponders not only whomever may be there with him but also shares insights about such things, as if they have lives of their own and can reveal how they share connections to all human beings. Fragments suggest other fragments
“A real effort of will is the force that animates Every Brilliant Thing” said The New York Times, finding that as the source of what keeps alive this 2016 play by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe.
MacMillan’s 2015 People, Places and Things was nominated for Best New Play at the Oliver Awards and his co-adaptation of a stage version of George Orwell’s 1984 opened on Broadway in June.
In this offering Bluebarn director Susan Clement-Toberer sees connections to those of us who witness, within ourselves and to those people surrounding us inside the theatre walls and out into the world beyond. The story, she says, unfolds in surprising ways, through laughter, through tears.
Bluebarn co-founder and former Artistic Director Hughston Walkinshaw becomes that man.
Every Brilliant Thing plays Sept.21-Oct 15, Bluebarn Theatre, 1106 South 10th St. Thurs.-Sat.: 7:30 p.m., Sun.: 6 p.m. Tickets: $25-$30.bluebarn.org