Ask actor Brent Jordan to list, without overthinking it, three brilliant things that make his life worth living, and he will tell you: “being at home at my desk playing video games, just hanging out with my girlfriend, and acting.”
John Sbordone, who’s directing Jordan in the City Repertory Theatre production of “Every Brilliant Thing,” which opens Friday, smiles roguishly as he reels off three brilliant things of his own: “Sex, sinking a 50-foot putt, placing a $2 bet that brings in $10,000.”
More “brilliant things” – a million of them, in fact – abound in “Every Brilliant Thing,” English playwright-director Duncan Macmillan’s 2014, quirkily structured, quasi-one-man play that revolves around a premise that is at once charming and heart-wrenching: It’s the story of a man, known only as the Narrator, who as a child sought to cope with his mother’s depression and suicidal tendencies, and to find a way to cheer her up.
His method? Make a list, for his mom and himself, “of everything that was brilliant about the world, everything worth living for.”
Number one on the list of the man’s younger self: “Ice cream.”
No. 2 – Kung Fu movies.
No. 3 – Burning things.
No. 7 – People falling over.
No. 26 – Peeing in the sea and nobody knows.
The Narrator continues to add to his list as he grows older, even as he continues to reflect on his mother’s life and even as he faces his own life challenges and triumphs.
No. 314 – The way Ray Charles sings the word “You.”
No. 994 – Hairdressers who listen to what you want.
At first glance, “Every Brilliant Thing” may seem to be a play that labors and strains under the profound, harsh realities of depression and suicide.
Not so fast, says Sbordone, who cites “one of the best quotes I’ve encountered from critics who have seen the play: ‘It’s the most hilarious show about depression you’ve ever seen.’ And that’s true.”
That’s partly because the pathos of the one-man play is considerably leavened by its odd presentation.
Sbordone wryly notes that “Every Brilliant Thing” really isn’t a one-person play at all, that instead it’s the first show in City Rep’s 14-year history “with 50 people in the cast.”
Huh?
That’s because, Sbordone adds, “Everybody participates.” Or, rather, every audience member can participate if they so desire.
The play’s script and stage directions call for each production to pass out a numbered index card inscribed with one “brilliant thing” to each and every patron who desires one – a task that will be handled prior to curtain time by Jordon and stage manager Jen Chidekel.
At various times in the play, Jordan’s Narrator will call out a number, and the audience member holding that card will read that “brilliant thing” aloud.
There’s more breaking down of what theater aficionados call the “fourth wall,” that psychological space that separates a performer from an audience: Some patrons will be drafted (again, only those who are willing) to take on roles as minor characters, such as a school counselor, a father or a veterinarian. Those characters may be given minimal lines, or sometimes they will merely react to the Narrator.
In an August 2024 story in The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, the British comedian Jonny Donahoe, who originated the role of the Narrator, noted: “We ask a group of people to involve themselves in a show about how to deal with the hardest things we ever deal with – depression and loss and grief – and these are all things you can’t do alone.”
No. 5 – Things with stripes.
No. 6. – Rollercoasters
“This is going to be a good time,” says Jordon, a City Rep veteran, Daytona Beach resident and full-time professional actor who frequently performs with Orlando Family Stage and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater,
Huh? Depression and suicide . . . a good time?
“It’s funny to say that, especially with the material,” Jordon says. “But I promise you this play is an enriching time and it goes through the myriad of feelings that you would have. It doesn’t try to sugarcoat it or pull any type of punches. The Narrator expresses anger, happiness – all the feelings that you will have when you’re dealing with a parental figure who’s coping with mental illness and suicidal ideations.
“You will get mad at that adult figure in your life. You will get sad. There isn’t just one emotion that you have in these situations, and the Narrator shares that with everyone.”
No. 315 – The smell of an old book.
No. 823 – Skinny dipping.
The play debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014, where it starred Donahoe, who in some sources is cited as a co-writer for having contributed to the script in the play’s formative stages. Soon after its acclaimed Fringe run, the play ran five weeks off-Broadway in New York.
In 2016, a filmed stage production starring Donahoe was televised by HBO, which curiously calls the show a “documentary” in some of its online spaces, and a “drama” in others.
To date, “Every Brilliant Thing” has been performed in some 400 professional productions in 63 countries, and Donahoe reprised his role at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe in a revival directed by Macmillan.
No. 25 – Wearing a cape.
No. 319 – Laughing so hard you shoot milk out of your nose.
The play’s “brilliant things” also include a dozen songs such as Ray Charles’s “Drown in My Own Tears,” Katrina and the Waves’s “Walking on Sunshine” and a remake of Daniel Johnson’s “Some Things Last a Long Time” (all featured in recordings rather than being sung live).
The play’s production notes also allow performers to update the script as they see fit. And so CRT’s production has replaced “Marlon Brando” with “Denzel Washington” as one of the “brilliant things,” while pop singers Whitney Houston and Beyonce also make an appearance in City Rep’s list.
N0. 577 – Tea and biscuits.
No. 993 – Having dessert as a main course.
Jordan was scheduled to co-star in City Repertory Theatre’s production of “Topdog/Underdog,” a 2001 dark comedy by Suzan-Lori Parks, at this point in the troupe’s 2024-2025 season. But that plan was scuttled when Jordan landed the role of Snoopy in a national tour of “A Charlie Brown Christmas Live!,” which performed 44 shows in 32 cities in late 2024.
However, Jordan had recently performed in an Orlando Family Stage production of “Every Brilliant Thing,” in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that toured numerous high schools in the Orlando area. Thus Jordan had no trouble convincing Sbordone to bring the play to City Rep with him in the lead.
“When I first encountered the play, I loved the fact that it seemed like just a person sharing a story with, let’s say, a new friend,” Jordan says. “I loved how intimate it was, and also that it was talking about mental health, which I think is very important. And when I found out that I was doing it for kids, that was the biggest thing that drew me to it.”
Jordan, who is Black, also knew that Black communities can face challenges in accessing mental health resources. As stated in a report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness: “While all of our communities face mental health challenges, Black communities often deal with more stigma and discrimination, and can receive compromised care.”
“There wasn’t a whole lot of people who look like me talking about mental health when I was growing up,” Jordan says. “Things are getting better now in 2025, but when I was a teenager in 2013-2014, it wasn’t a big thing especially in the Black community. It was usually ‘Go to church’ and I wasn’t a big church person. Or you handled it yourself. There was no outlet, no person saying ‘Hey, these feelings that you’re having, it’s okay and there are places that could be able to help.’ I felt like this play was an awesome opportunity to try to give back to other kids who look like me.”
–Rick de Yampert for FlaglerLive
City Repertory Theatre will stage “Every Brilliant Thing” at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17-18 and Jan. 24-25, and at 3 p.m. Jan. 19 and 26. Performances will be in CRT’s black box theater at City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite B207, Palm Coast. Tickets are $25 adults and $15 students, available online at crtpalmcoast.com or by calling 386-585-9415. Tickets also will be available at the venue just before curtain time.
