Photo Credit: Will Green Photography – Full Cast of Every Brilliant Thing
A Guest Review by Karen Lisa
When we arrived, we were greeted by members of the cast, who were already on stage, chatting and interacting with the audience. On the back of our seats were slips of paper with numbers on them, followed by either a single word or a sentence. The cast explained that whenever the relevant number was quoted during the show, we would need to read aloud whatever was written on our slip of paper. They told us that it would all become apparent during the performance. This was our first introduction to just how interactive the show was going to be.
The young cast, all aged between 16 and 22, consisted of seven male and female members of the company. They then took to the stage, which had been beautifully transformed into the lounge of a family home. The set was amazing—very homely, with old sofas, chairs, rugs and lots of props displayed on shelves at the back. Everything had been cleverly thought out and was used effectively throughout the show.
Photo Credit: Will Green Photography -Robbie Sliwka, Isabelle Casement
The cast took turns telling us the story of a young person who had grown up in a family where their mother suffered from severe mental health problems. They explained how her illness had affected them throughout their childhood and into adulthood, and how they had tried to help their mother by writing a list of “Every Brilliant Thing” to make her realise that life was worth living.
The list began when they were seven years old and included things such as ice creams and rollercoasters. As they grew older, the list became more complex, eventually becoming an attempt to reach one million things that were brilliant.
Throughout the show, the wonderful cast members called out numbers from the list, and audience members read out their lines at the appropriate moments. This was just one of the many ways the audience became part of the performance.
Photo Credit: Will Green Photography
The show was incredibly cleverly executed, with audience members being invited onto the stage to take on the roles of characters they had encountered throughout their lives. During these scenes, the actors had to completely ad-lib because they had no idea how the audience members would interpret their roles. This created some very funny and spontaneous moments, and all the audience members who took part embraced their roles and interacted confidently with the cast.
My personal favourite moment of audience participation was when a young man was invited onto the stage to play the university lecturer and give a summary of a book to teach the university students. It was hilarious and demonstrated just how well the cast could adapt to whatever was thrown at them.
Photo Credit: Will Green Photography -Isabelle Casement and cast
All of the cast members had wonderful stage presence, an impressive ability to adapt the script to the audience’s responses and, most importantly, an amazing ability to find humour in a very serious subject with some incredibly difficult themes.
The cast also shared factual information about mental health, suicide and death. The show was incredibly emotional, and I felt that we, as an audience, were able to share in the emotions of the young people and understand how they had tried to navigate these incredibly difficult issues within their family.
It was very hard not to become upset towards the end of the show, when all the boxes of memories were brought in from the garage, and the list of brilliant things was read aloud.
After the performance, I chatted to one of the cast members, who told me that the show was originally written as a one-person production but that they had been given permission to adapt it into a seven-person show. I thought this worked incredibly well and gave the production a wonderful sense of energy and togetherness.
The energy, enthusiasm and understanding shown by these young people made the show a truly “brilliant thing”. I would personally go and see it again with another audience, both to experience the performance differently and to appreciate the incredible amount of hard work that they have all put into it.
Photo Credit: Will Green Photography – Full Cast of Every Brilliant Thing
Huge congratulations to the members of The New Wolsey Theatre Youth Company. You are the stars of today and definitely ones to watch out for in the future! If you get the chance to visit the Wolsey Studio between now and Saturday evening, you are in for a real treat
Every Brilliant Thing has performancees Friday 14th and Saturday 15th August at 7.30 pm with a matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday
Visit the New Wolsey Website for details and tickets
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