Rosie Thomson, Ace Lawson, the Miniaturists, the Apathists, Lucy Prebble, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paul Burgess, Simon Daw, Kanatip LoukGolf Soonthornrak, Tom Dingle, Jamie Cullum, Sophie Dahl, Poppy Corbett, Ali Mason, Emma Campbell-Jones, Imogen Kinchin, Camilla Kinchin, Sian Reese-Williams, Stef O’Driscoll, Sean Linnen, Dominic Kennedy, Becki Willmore, Nikole Beckwith, Tom Richards, Robert Icke, Katie Mitchell, Josie Long, Daniel Kitson, Mark Thomas, Jessica Amato.
Mike Bartlett, Clare Lizzimore.
Paddy Gervers, Anna Knight.
Will Young. Rachel Taylor.
Michelle Beck. Effie Woods.
The play also owes a debt to those who have contributed to the list over the years.
Every Brilliant Thing is a collaboration between myself, George Perrin and Jonny Donahoe. It is an adaptation of my short story ‘Sleeve Notes’, originally written for the Miniaturists and performed by Rosie Thomson at Southwark Playhouse, Theatre503 and the Union Theatre and by myself at Trafalgar Studios, the Old Red Lion and Village Underground, by Gugu Mbatha-Raw at 93 Feet East and by various people at the Latitude Festival. George and I worked for over a decade to turn it into a full-length play. During this time it has been through several incarnations, including an installation created by Paul Burgess and Simon Daw for Scale Project. This particular incarnation was developed with Paines Plough and Pentabus with support from Anne McMeehan and Jim Roberts. The play wouldn’t exist were it not for George’s persistence, his enthusiasm for the story and his openness to work in an entirely new way.
It also owes a particular debt to Jonny Donahoe who, drawing on his experience as a stand-up comedian, found ways to tell the story and use the audience that George and I couldn’t have conceived of. By its nature, the play is different every night and, as such, Jonny essentially co-authored the play while performing it.
This text was published after two years of devising, several trial performances around the UK, runs in Edinburgh and London and a four-month run at the Barrow Street Theatre in NYC. It has been filtered through Jonny’s interactions with hundreds of audiences. I’ve provided footnotes throughout to explain certain aspects of the play in performance and to give examples of some of the things that have happened unexpectedly.
DM
Note
Note
The NARRATOR can be played by a woman or a man of any age or ethnicity. In the first production, the NARRATOR was performed by a man, so appears as such in the text. The play should always be set in the country it’s being performed in and references should be amended to reflect this.
The word NARRATOR is included for ease of reading. It is never heard by the audience and shouldn’t be included in programmes or production materials.
There is no interval.
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