JAG’s Every Brilliant Thing Opens at the Briggs with a Cast of One, Plus Others
You might think a play about a child confronting his mother’s suicide would be a downer. It’s not. You might conjure up a set that looks bleak, but in fact the set is cozy, with a comfy chair and an array of warm lights. You may have read that Every Brilliant Thing is a one-person show. It is, but it is not.
Jarvis Antonio Green, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of JAG Productions, makes his on-stage debut in a play that is an extended conversation about death, depression, family, love, wordless drives to the hospital, the hold of that one person who makes a difference for a child in need. The child begins a list of every beautiful thing, however small, that makes life worth living, in the hope that he can convince his mother to stay alive. The list grows, changes, is abandoned, returns throughout his life.
A solo performance can be famously difficult to maintain, but throughout Every Brilliant Thing you are captured by Green’s boundless energy in telling this story. His depictions of scenes of the character as a young child cause you to laugh, reminisce, and invest. You’re pulling for that kid from the get-go.
As for the supporting cast, it changes with every performance because it is in fact you, the audience, from the moment of your arrival in the Briggs Opera House lobby. You’re invited to scribble down your own favorite brilliant thing that cheers you, like “cat videos” or “educating children.” (Actual examples from the preview I attended.) You will be asked to select a book. You’ll know what to do when the moment comes. And it does, many times over throughout the performance. The participation of the audience—so beautifully and sometimes hilariously done—makes the story told on stage a communal one. (The timid need not fear. As the program advises, “If you’re asked to do something, unless it really terrifies you, do it. Jarvis will take good care of you, promise.” No one is dragooned into participating.)
Go. Take yourself out for a night of theater that will make you feel less alone, and cause you to breathe in a little shared humanity.
Every Brilliant Thing runs through May 14, 2023 at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, VT. To purchase tickets, click here. Opening night is Saturday, April 29.
Photo, top, rehearsal, Jarvis Antonio Green, by Theodore Samuels, courtesy of JAG Productions. Photo of books by Susan B. Apel
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.