THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
By Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donohoe
@sohoplace, 4 Soho Place, London W1D 3BG until November 8, 2025
London has been very late to the party on this one; Every Brilliant Thing is a wildly popular one-person play that has become a global phenomenon. Since its Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2014, it has been performed in 80 countries (including five weeks at the off-Broadway Barrow Theatre) and is hugely popular with amateur companies. There couldn't be a better venue for it than the spacious yet intimate, in-the-round @sohoplace because this is a magical bit of theater-making where the performer must hold the audience in the palm of his or her hand for 75 minutes.
In addition to Jonny Donohoe, who created the performance, producers here have lined up a stellar cast of actors/stand-ups who will perform it (mostly) in sequence until November 8. Anchoring the run is Lenny Henry (who couldn't be more perfect) to be followed by Donohoe, Ambika Mod (outstanding in TV's One Day and This is Going to Hurt), Sue Perkins (Great British Bake Off, Just a Minute etc.) and to top it off, the movie star Minnie Driver.
The play's conceit is simple. In response to his mother's suicide attempt, a young boy makes a list of all the things worth living for – like water-fights, ice-cream and "things with stripes". Simple things, yet quietly illuminating. As he gets older the list keeps growing. The magic lies in the way the audience is invited to take part. They are assigned lines and even roles in the story. They're given numbered cards and, prompted by the number, call out another item on the list. Almost everyone contributes and a community is created. For those with an allergy to audience participation or compulsory 'fun', fear not, this is done with charm and discretion and nobody is pressurized.
The piece grew out of a monologue which Duncan Macmillan initiated. He's famous for the lacerating addiction drama People, Places and Things. This is nothing like that.
The play is written in such a way that directors and performers can tailor it to their own needs. When it was done in Athens, for example, with the Greek star Melina Theo, they infused the text with references to Greek popular culture from the '90s. In the list itself, the crucial song selections of the protagonist can be edited to fit the performer's life and the cultural context in which it's performed.
In this way it is capable of touching people in a very direct and powerful way that a regular play might not. It has a particular resonance for anyone who, like the character's mother, struggled with depression or lived with someone going through it. Yes, it could be accused of being slight in dealing with a very serious issue of suicide, but it's not making any claims; there are no big resolutions or statements. Instead, the play is rather like a moment to stop and smell the roses, and we all need that.
Henry, one of the warmest and most charming performers there could be, perfectly embodies the seven-year-old boy's mindset in the first section and brings his great skills at winning over audiences as it goes on. On the night I saw it, the man he'd chosen from the audience to briefly play the Dad was quite shy if not reticent, and how Henry handled this was captivating. On the other side, when it does run the danger of teetering over into sentimentality he quickly pulls it back.
It lives or dies, of course, on the ability of the performer to be quick on their feet, and director Jeremy Herrin aids them by giving it all a gentle dynamic. It never sags. It can only be as good as the leads and what will be fascinating to see is how different it turns out to be with each star. This is deep stand-up territory as not many actors could face these many variables every night. It's a tonic, though, and demands to be seen.
