Every Brilliant Thing

“The funniest play you will ever see about depression” The Guardian

by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe

performed by Broadway veteran Scott Barrow

SO -EVERY BRILLIANT THING- you’re six years old. Mom’s in the hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid and that she finds it hard to be happy’. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for: 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Burning things. 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose. 5. Things with stripes.  You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own. Ostensibly Every Brilliant Thing  takes us on a journey of the narrator, here expertly played by the very talented Scott Barrow, from the age of 6 through adolescence to adulthood, as he deals with his mother’s depression and suicide attempts by making a list of brilliant, joyful things.  This heart-wrenching, hilarious play examines what depression can do to people, while highlighting the irrepressible resilience of the human spirit and the our ability to find joy in the everyday.”

Approximate run time is a little over one hour.