“Every Brilliant Thing” with Windy City Playhouse

Windy City Playhouse is now presenting the Chicago premiere of Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan Macmillan. Directed by Jessica Fisch, it opens their new performance space at the Playhouse’s South Loop location. Rebecca Spence as the narrator walks us through a list of objects, concepts, and occurrences that she started as a way to encourage her mother, who struggled with depression. As the list progresses, the items on the list expand to include things that help our narrator deal with the tragedies of life. This show truly has every brilliant thing about theatre in it: an outstanding performance, subtle and intricate script, flawless direction, and creative set, props, and sound design. 

Spence performs a tour de force, holding scenes with sock puppets, playing the piano, dancing around the stage, and confessing the effects of her mother’s depression on her own mental health. It takes an enormous amount of skill to host an evening about depression and suicide while still managing to make the audience laugh. We all have imprints from our caregivers. With proximity comes both pain and joy, hence the term bittersweet. Spence unravels the tale with a refreshing sense of dignity and grace, not fishing for pity or beseeching sympathy. Her openness as the narrator along with the finely tuned direction of Fisch allows for spontaneous moments of candid interaction with the audience without the lurking fear of the momentum of the story being derailed. 

It is simultaneously a finished product and a work in progress, much like mental health or the path to recovery. Every choice has been made, every line learned, and every prop put in place. Now, the next step is to drive the car down the road, and the last ingredient is the audience. Director Fisch set a pace that didn’t linger but also didn’t breeze past the seminal moments found in Duncan’s malleable script. Moments of comedy were interpreted with sentimentality, and hardships were portrayed with mental fortitude. This kept the overall taste of the piece crisp instead of maudlin. 

Set designer Scott Davis lined the room with leather arm chairs for us to recline while we watch Spencer dance from kitchen chairs to a piano in the corner. Suspended from the ceiling are whimsical lamps that mimic the suspension of the mood swings of life. Cailtin McCarthy’s props not only include those used in scenes, but also household objects entrusted to the audience with the “brilliant things” scrawled upon them for the members to call out when their times come. One cannot create a list of favorite things without mentioning favorite songs or artists that speak directly to our souls. So Erik Backus (sound design) created a soundtrack containing a wide range of 80’s hits and soul songs for moments of jubilation, and a stunning cohesion of lighting and sound display that closes the evening. 

In this one act that runs about eighty minutes, our narrator not only walks through a coming of age story and a healing from familial trauma, the audience also gets to interact with the set, props, and performance. With the purchase of a ticket comes the possibility of being able to call out one of the numbered items on the list, or to join the narrator as a father, a lover, a teacher, or a veterinarian. When you purchase a ticket to this performance, you aren’t merely renting a chair (a very comfy, leather armchair to be exact!) to sit in for over an hour while watching a performance. You are purchasing a unique experience with a stranger who will call out the first item on the list, or a specific performance with a certain person playing the father in an early scene. The ticket price covers the cost of admission as well as a rare and uncommon connection with the audience members around you and the exquisite production. 

Performances take place at Windy City Playhouse’s South Loop location (2229 S. Michigan Ave.) on the 3rd floor. Tickets are on sale now for $55-$75 and can be purchased in person at the Windy City Playhouse Box Office, online or by calling (773) 891-8985. WARNING: the script contains verbal descriptions of suicide and depression. The performance schedule for it is: Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit www.WindyCityPlayhouse.com.

Highly Recommended 

Sophie Vitello