Everybody
“One of this country’s most original and illuminating writers” (The New York Times) shines his light on the 15th-century play Everyman with startling results. Everybody—a role assigned each night from a small cast of actors by lottery live on stage—is a happy person, a free person, a person who believes nothing but the best lies ahead. Then Death comes calling and Everybody must go on the journey of a lifetime. Obie Award winner and MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon) has created an irreverent, rollicking ride that asks deep questions of all who see it. Remixing the archetypal medieval morality play into an explosive experiment of wit and emotion, Everybody “fills the heart in a new and unexpected way” (The New Yorker).
Featuring STC Affiliated Artist Nancy Robinette as Death.
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BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS is a Brooklyn-based playwright. His plays include Everybody (Signature Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), War (world premiere, Yale Rep; LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), Appropriate (Signature Theatre; OBIE Award), An Octoroon (Soho Rep.; OBIE Award), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). A Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre, his most recent honors include the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright from the London Evening Standard, a London Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwriting, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, the Benjamin Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Theatre Award, the Steinberg Playwriting Award, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. He sits on the board of Soho Rep. This fall, Yale Rep will produce the world-premiere of Jacobs-Jenkins’ new play The Girls, a contemporary adaptation of Euripides’s The Bacchae.
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All titles, artists and dates subject to change.
Reviews
“★★★★★…Who knew that death could be so fun?” –DC Theatre Scene
“EXTREMELY FUNNY…combines the freshness of improv with the crispness of a precise script.” –DCist
“MAGNIFICENT…this gorgeous and unique production is vibrating with life.” –MD Theatre Guide
“A RARE TREAT…a fast-talking, quick-witted, deep-thinking performance.” –BroadwayWorld
“SEE IT…each of the cast members is exceptional.” –The Georgetown Dish
“DEEPLY LAYERED and THOUGHT-PROVOKING…full of fun and surprises.” –The Montgomery County Sentinel
“Everybody goes from one STUNNING visual treat to another.” –CurtainUp
“HIGHLY RECOMMENDED…a deeply probative, wildly dramatic, visually stunning production.” –Whisk and Quill
“Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has taken the story, applied his own special vision, and produced MAGIC.” –Culpeper Times
“ENCHANTING…the play’s tongue-in-cheek recognition of its lineage and downright sass make it a gleeful ride.” –The Beacon
“BRILLIANT…equal parts thought provoking, funny, and full of surprises.” –Theatre Travels
“RIVETING…the unpredictability is exciting!” –K Street Magazine