Every Brilliant Thing – @sohoplace – Saturday 23rd August 2025

(Rated 10/5) Often – though not quite always 😉 – I’m drawn to a show because someone I like is going to be performing in it. It occurred to me just before I started to write this, that there is a clear reason from my own childhood as to why that is the case. I am the child of a mother with bipolar or manic depression. And amongst the ways I developed to navigate that (and other associated challenges) starting from maybe 7/8 years old was to imagine, and later write down my own stories. I realise looking back that that was my key ‘Brilliant Thing’ to help me escape. Of course, that in itself is a very common childhood device, but for me it became about writing plays so that I could work with the performers I liked at the time… R2D2, then Harrison Ford in conjunction with my first girl crush Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. ‘Star Wars’ of course on my own Brilliant Things list!! Someone I feel has been around my whole life, and well he has, but when I was about that age, and the age of the narrator in ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe, (now Sir) Lenny Henry first appeared on television. That first impression by Lenny of Frank Spencer on ‘New Faces’ happened when I was 8 years old. But then Lenny went on to do absolutely everything anybody could possibly do in the entertainment world almost – Kids’ TV, stand-up comedy straight acting, Shakespeare, singing (including on the Brilliant Thing Kate Bush’s album ‘Red Shoes’), screenwriting and playwriting… perhaps the only thing he hasn’t done is dancing… come on ‘Strictly’, sign him up… he clearly can dance. And that isn’t even mentioning his numerous charity- works, especially being a founding member of ‘Comic Relief’… and even more recently swimming with Sharks in ‘Celebrity Infested Waters’! He is someone around whom I feel happy and safe whenever he appears on screen or stage, and has the best smile ever. Another Brilliant Thing ‘Lenny Henry’s cheeky grin’ 😊 So, yep, you’ve guessed it, Lenny was the draw for ‘Every Brilliant Thing’, and to be honest, I only wanted to see it with him though I’m sure all the others are great, then second looking at the subject matter, and being a child who spent so much of their life wanting to fix my Mum, make her happy and save her from suicide, well ‘Gotta do it’!

However, then came a slightly scary discovery. ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ involves audience participation. Now you might think that the Restricted Reviewer would relish that, didn’t she just write that was the Brilliant Thing in her head as a child, which helped her feel happy. And yes, that’s true, but, being an adult, it can be a totally different matter. Which, ironically is addressed in the play itself, though not so ironic, given this play addresses Every Single Brilliant and not so Brilliant Thing about life, depression, highs and lows… a comedy about depression, well yes… which brings to mind my absolutely Brilliantest Thing as a child would be my Mum’s laugh, smile, cheeky chuckle and the way her whole face lit up when it happened. So, given adult Me and even more so my theatre-going friend for this one both felt pretty scared at the prospect of participating, we avoided booking ourselves into the audience participation front row seats. Little did we know, and only discovered when we actually went into the auditorium to take our seats, anybody could be asked to ‘do stuff’! The front row was indeed for people who might be asked to improvise with Lenny – be his character’s vet, counsellor, father or love interest… OMG if only I’d been brave enough to be the love interest lol. But other people are asked to lend pens, books, jackets, take their shoes and socks off (well go see if you’re interested to find what that’s all about), and mainly read some item from the list of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’. As we went in, we spotted Lenny talking to people over the other side of the space. He then turned and we waved. He started coming over. My friend was giving me ‘Oh no, he’s going to ask us to do stuff’ vibes, and I was feeling both nervous, yet also super-excited. And he arrived, and I beamed “Hi Lenny”. He asked if we had loud voices, my friend said she really didn’t and of course there would be no way he should ask her to do anything – to that effect anyway. So, he turned to me. Could I read a long piece? Yikes, no, not a long piece, but yes, to something – all of which I didn’t quite say, but I think my face implied. So, he gave me Brilliant Thing Number 320 and explained I was to say it ‘loud and proud’ and with enthusiasm when he gave me the cue. And off he went. And I turned to my friend – or was she anymore landing me in it 😉 – and asked if I have a loud voice. I really don’t have a loud voice. Oh crikey, but does that actually matter maybe as I’ve just had a conversation with one of my heroes from childhood right through to adulthood – Lenny Henry – Knight-of-the-Realm/Legend/National-Treasure, and he asked me to do something and of course I – Inner Child - was going to say yes, but OMG now I actually have to do it!! And breathe…

And so, Lenny started the show, and straight away, someone went wrong not coming in with Brilliant Thing Number 1, when he said ‘1’, causing enormous hilarity as he reacted to that and said he would have to start again. Similar happened with 2 or was it 3, and again Lenny reacted with wonderful humorous tellings-off and restarting, immediately engaging absolutely everybody in the room. There were a catalogue of mishaps – the guest support cast not doing as requested or needing directions he implied he didn’t think they’d need. But, of course, all of that was what made the performance so special and so inclusive. It all felt so natural – even though I have a sneeky suspicion some were sort of set-up, but none of that mattered at all. Lenny worked the room and all of us to perfection. “It’s your show!”, he had said to us before he started and we really were all creatives in it. ‘Different Every Night’ is a book on performance that I love, and in this case, for this show, and all the gazillion (maybe) times it has been performed with multitudes of people across the whole world, naturally it’s going to be different every single time. And that is one of the Brilliant Things about it! And with all the hilarious poignant bonkersness going on, I sort of forgot to be nervous. But, I was still listening carefully for my cue. It turned out that not Every Brilliant Thing is actually spoken in the show, so there are jumps, and even numbers out of order. So, I certainly couldn’t be sure when mine would come. Then seemingly suddenly, Lenny was at 317… 318… my heart racing, internally trying to raise the volume switch on my voice… 319… the 319 person saying their Brilliant Thing… Lenny: “Three Hundred and Twenty” Me: “Making up after an argument” And, I don’t actually remember doing it, or have any idea if I was loud or proud in my delivery, but my eyes were fixed on him, and he was clearly actively listening and reacted to it, nodding and seeming to embrace it inwards, which I could see on his face and through his body. So simple yet so special! I’d acted with Lenny Henry. Definitely a Brilliant Thing <3

I’m certainly not going to negatively criticise those much braver folk who played the supporting roles from the front row, but feedback-wise from my POV the counsellor lady was the best, the father was hilarious in his efforts at mime, which Lenny repeatedly told him to stop, the vet man didn’t know where the thigh on the dog was to inject the poor pet with a pen, but then again how could you when the dog was someone’s jacket! I can’t remember a great deal about the university professor man, except he kept being interrupted by Lenny lol! It was a shame that the lady playing love-interest Sam seemed to feel awkward, but I’m certain if I’d have had that opportunity, I’d have been far more awkward and struck dumb with nerves and awe! The brave participant who read out the incredibly long and complicated Brilliant Thing did very well I thought. And stood up to deliver it too.

A few stand-out moments for me: One of the books Lenny received from the audience as a prop was Julian Clary’s ‘Curtain Call to Murder’ with a review on the back, which he read out, from Lenny’s own ex-wife Dawn French! (For anyone who doesn’t know, as I understand it Lenny and Dawn are still very good friends, and he even gave her support with her new dating after they split, but sadly it was Lenny’s own depression and mid-life crisis following a series of close bereavements, which broke them up.) His expression when he said her name was priceless 😉 Lenny’s powerful performance as the closed-off father in response to the series of ‘Whys’ from the father-playing-audience-member, who played his character for a little section – it reminded me of the range of Lenny’s performance skills. Lenny Henry saying ‘Mr Potato Head’ 😊 Brilliant Thing ‘The seventh track on all the greatest albums’ – I need to check that one out. Sam calling their black Labrador dog ‘Metaphor’ – I mean and how Lenny delivers that again! The joke from the counsellor lady – ‘Knock, Knock’, ‘Who’s There?’, ‘Bear’, ‘Bear Who’, ‘Bear Bum’ – don’t know if that was her own joke or from the playscript, but lovely improvisation if not. And particularly poignant for me a section around as a child of a depressive suicidal parent not really being able to enjoy the ups in the knowledge the downs would come after, and trying to just keep things calm and stable – I can so relate! Additionally in that section on how neuroscience shows the brain of that child to be literally changed as a result of the experience. (I have already got myself the play script and looking forward to taking in all this again.)

It's difficult to know – and again as I haven’t read it yet I can’t say – how close Lenny’s performance of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ was to the original script, though apparently also each performer worked with Duncan MacMillan to develop their own version. Of course, in performing it on each occasion new things will always come up and the main performer is going to have to work with that and adapt to it. Lenny gave us the wonderful whole variety of his skills in this – adding to his obvious repertoire (listed above) playing keyboard and dancing too. We had Every Brilliant Thing about Sir Lenworth George Henry! (Forgive me 😉)

As an experience for me in the embracing intimacy of @sohoplace, in the power of all it brought up for me – Happy and Sad – and in realising a Childhood Dream this was a Brilliant Thing deserving of a Brilliant 10/5!!!

EveryBrilliantThing – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025