Every Brilliant Thing is a moving, interactive one-person play by Duncan Macmillan that explores depression, love, and hope through a growing list of life’s simple joys.

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I was drawn to the play for many reasons, chief among them its openness. With no prescriptive staging or direction, the text offered complete creative freedom to craft something deeply personal.

 

In my adaptation, I cast three different actors to perform the same role on alternating nights, each developing their interpretation in isolation. This process produced three unique yet equally truthful portrayals, each capturing the individuality and emotional depth at the heart of the piece.

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For the finale, we filled the space with handwritten “brilliant things” collected throughout rehearsals, letting them rain down over the audience as the music swelled and the lights remained up—transforming the ending of the play into a shared space of gratitude and reflection that gently blurred the boundary between performance and life.

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