‘Every Brilliant Thing’ uplifts, despite subject matter

“Every Brilliant Thing” is a play about suicide and its effects on loved ones, yet it manages to present the narrative of a young person learning to cope with her mother’s depressive episodes in an uplifting and positive light.

The show uses a very minimal set with few technological supports or embellishments and leaves the house lights up through much of the performance. The very visible audience is addressed by the performer directly, removing the conceptual “fourth wall” and creating a sense of communion and intimacy. The sole performer, actress Katherine Banks, expertly tells the audience of her childhood with a depressive, suicidal mother and a dad who struggles to communicate and has checked out by enlisting audience members to serve as her acting partners (with plenty of gentle guidance from the star).

For instance, the audience is cued to read from a list of small pleasures that make life worth living, the “brilliant things” referred to in the title. The list keeps growing and growing as the performer desperately attempts to keep her mother focused on the positive, affirming things in life. Unfortunately, the narrator’s efforts are not enough, and after her mother ends her life, the repercussions and ramifications negatively affect her marriage and psychological health.

So, how can a show with such heavy source material be uplifting? 

One way is the deliberate and measured tone delivered by Banks. You will find no emotional grandstanding, histrionics or over-the-top choices to amplify the comedy or pathos of the scene, but rather a calm and assured performance that moves easily and smoothly from conversation to confession, from realization to recognition and from a place of pain to a place of healing in a convincing and clear fashion. Brechtian defamiliarization effects are employed, such as telling the audience what is going to happen before it happens and adding touches of humor to things that are otherwise not terribly humorous.

Banks navigates a truly complex script with scripted and unscripted moments of audience interaction in a manner that instills trust and confidence in her ability to tell the story honestly and in a compelling fashion. She delivers a warm, connected, nuanced and delicate performance. The fact that she’s surrounded on four sides by the audience without making them aware of how difficult that is to do is a credit to her technical proficiency and skills. Banks is a treat to watch on stage, her actions and words reading as genuine and spontaneous.

The material itself is also presented as gently as possible, with built in “trigger warnings” and various methods to defuse the impact of such a harsh and painful topic. The most difficult scenes are framed by warmth and laughter, and the entire production fosters a sense of support and connection between the audience and the narrator. This well-written play, excellently performed by a true professional, is an overwhelmingly positive experience, even though it deals with difficult material.