Every Brilliant Thing

Every Brilliant Thing is Duncan Macmillan’s poignant script about coping with suicide: a young boy makes lists for his mother as to the reasons why she should live. As he grows up the list gets longer and longer to become a life-affirming exercise.

The roundabout’s circular, bare stage takes no prisoners, and Jonny Donahoe performs ‘the son’ with candid sincerity. Yet he beguiles the audience with their pre-written practical, whimsical pithies, which dilute potential mawkish moments. Other audience members are called upon to be a vet, his dad, his school counsellor and Sam, his first love.

This is engaging, interactive theatre, and given the subject matter, goes some way to healing a deep trauma.