Every Brilliant Thing
BY DUNCAN MACMILLAN WITH JONNY DONAHOE
“If you live a long life and get to the end of it without ever once having felt crushingly depressed, then you probably haven’t been paying attention.”
THE LIST BEGAN AFTER HER FIRST ATTEMPT.
A LIST OF EVERYTHING BRILLIANT ABOUT THE WORLD. EVERYTHING WORTH LIVING FOR.
Macmillan’s play spans several decades and includes audiences in the making of the narrative. In the summer and fall of 2019, I toured several locations in Vermont performing this vital, daring, and very funny play. Drawing on my experience as an actor, teacher, and clown became absolutely essential to marrying the gravitas within the subject of suicide with the humble playfulness required to elevate the text to serious revelry among all who are present.
What I appreciate about Every Brilliant Thing is how it demands so much flexibility within the performer. It requires you to respond truthfully to the interactive moments with audience members. The line between what is real and what is scripted is rather blurred (a particular interest of mine). On one hand, it is absolutely a play. On the other, if done with expertise and humility it appears to be the performer’s actual life story. As an exercise in active empathy and acknowledgment, the play’s means IS the message.
CREDITS
Play by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe
Directed by Robin Fawcett
Performed by Aly Perry
Stage Management by Maria McGrath
Produced by Middlebury Acting Company, Artistic Director Melissa Lourie
Photography by Owen Leavey & Andy Butterfield
The Flynn, Burlington, VT
Phantom Theater, Warren, VT
Vermont Coffee Company Playhouse, Middlebury, VT
“Every Brilliant Thing is powered by Perry’s receptivity and creativity, and by the audience’s willingness to trust her…It seems she can cup her hands to hold every member of the audience. None of us falls; all of us lift each other up.”
— Alex Brown, Seven Days. Read the full review here.
“Aly masterfully made a community out of the audience...Skillful. Genuine. I have never seen anything like it”
— Sarah Lowry, MA, Drama Therapist, Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment
“Without exaggeration, without hyperbole, one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life. What the very highest level of theater and acting can be. Stellar and transformative.”
— Peter Espenshade, Chair of Board, Vermont Stage; President, The Vermont Association for Mental Health
