Every Brilliant Thing
by Duncan Macmillan, Jonny Donahoe

Name: Every Brilliant Thing
Brand: Duncan Macmillan
SKU: 9780822235644
Rating: 4.57 (35 reviews)

Broadway Off-Broadway West End

Every Brilliant Thing Book Cover — Every Brilliant Thing Cover

Highlights

75 mins Present Day Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle) Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle) Bare Stage/Simple Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes Comedy

Awards & Recognition

Drama Desk Award Lucille Lortel Award Tony Award

Nominee: 2026 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play Winner! 2015 Drama Desk Award for Best Play Nominee: 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show

Synopsis

Every Brilliant Thing opens with a mother’s suicide attempt and her seven-year-old’s subsequent search to understand it and help lift her depression by documenting the joys all around them.

Starting with the basics, like ice cream and the color yellow, the list is maintained throughout their lifetime and highlights the narrator’s ever-changing view of what is beautiful about the world as they reach adulthood.

This interactive solo show incorporates audience participation.

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Press Reviews

"Every Brilliant Thing finds a perfect balance between conveying the struggles of life, and celebrating all that is sweet in it."
— The Independent

"What Macmillan offers, with great sensitivity behind the abundant laughs, is a child’s fierce, flawed attempt to make sense of adult unhappiness and a meditation on the shadow that a loved one’s depression casts over the lives of a family."
— Evening Standard (London)

"Every Brilliant Thing is sad, but it is also gloriously funny and exceptionally warm. It’s a show that spells out a little of what depression can do to people, but it also highlights the irrepressible resilience of the human spirit."
— Time Out London