Steve Wood digs into an orange, one of the brililant things in Live Theatre Workshop’s “Every Brilliant Thing.”
So much could have gone wrong.
“Every Brilliant Thing,” now on stage at Live Theatre Workshop, could have been maudlin. It wasn’t.
It could have been overly sentimental. It wasn’t.
It could have been cringe-worthy. It wasn’t.
In fact, the Duncan MacMillan play was riveting, funny and provocative, thanks to the sole actor on stage, Steve Wood, and thoughtful direction by Sabian Trout.
That funny part is especially surprising — the play is about suicide. Depression. Emotional isolation.
Yet the cleverly crafted script is full of heart, packed with laughs and overloaded with a sweetness that never becomes cloying.
The structure is not your typical theater piece. The lights never go down. Wood is dressed in street clothes and greets audience members as they come in.
Rather than a big announcement about phones, he pops around and asks people to turn them off. And he hands out typed-out lines to individuals to read when he calls their number.
Immediately, the audience has the sense we are all at a gathering of friends.
When he takes the stage, here is what we discover: He was six when his mother first tried to kill herself. He wanted her to know there is much to live for. So he began a list of every reason that makes life worth hanging on to, like ice cream and water fights.
As Wood calls out numbers, audience members read the favorite things.
The list is woven throughout the story, is a sort of guide for us as he grows into an adult, and a touchstone reminding us that while there is darkness, there is also light.
And there is darkness in the story Wood tells, from a father who shuts him out when he needs him most, to a mother who has no use for this world — and by extension, for her son, to a marriage that crumbles as a grown son sinks into his own depression.
One of the biggest reasons this production succeeds is because Wood is totally guileless. His charm reads true. He didn’t just tell us the story; he lived it.
Plus, he was quick: he had to be — when audience members become part of the cast, you must be prepared to react and respond to whatever they decide to say or do. Wood handled little surprises with grace and humor.
Trout wisely kept the set simple and the action clean. Her instincts and directing talent gave the audience a rousing, thoughtful 60 minutes.
