Brilliant in the Round

By Lisa Duncan

A warm summer evening, a glass of wine on the terrace, and a theater experience unlike any other welcomed guests to opening night of Every Brilliant Thing at Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic Theatre.

Directed by Jenny Sullivan, narrated by Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper, the production is staged in the round, allowing the audience to engage, react, and collaborate throughout the performance. Sullivan describes the experience as a communal event where the script remains flexible and each evening takes on a life of its own.

“It’s a wild ride!” She laughed. “It’s unbelievable – a new show every night.”

Running through June 21, the acclaimed play by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe transforms the traditional relationship between audience and performer into something far more personal. Before the show begins, audience members are invited to become part of the story itself, if they so choose, helping shape characters, moments, and memories as the evening unfolds.

According to Scott DeVine, executive director of Ensemble Theatre Company, that’s precisely what makes the production so special.

“The exciting part is the audience participation,” he explained. “Selected audience members are handed slips of paper before the show and asked to fill in a character – like the narrator’s dad, for example. It creates this amazing back-and-forth engagement. It’s never the same show twice!”

As the story unfolds, the list at the heart of the play no longer belongs solely to the narrator, and the audience no longer remains behind an invisible wall. Instead, the performance becomes something created together, one brilliant thing at a time.

Before the curtain rose, guests mingled over wine on the patio and terrace, including visionary sponsors Dana White, Lara Spencer, and Geof Wyatt, who brought along his lovely mother, Deborah Wyatt. Also enjoying the warm summer evening were Nancy and Fred Golden, Tricia Dixon and Howard Jay Smith,and Mahri Kerley of Chaucer’s Books, who certainly knows good writing when she sees it.

One left with a smile, a story, and perhaps a speaking part. A brilliant thing.