by Dorothy Marcic

If you are the kind of person who likes being a “glass-half-full” kind of person and find true connection with David Lynch movies, you might not be the right audience for Every Brilliant Thing, now playing at the Barrow Street Theater.

But if you would rather listen to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday and prefer to be cheered up when life seems just way too overwhelming, then head down to The Village and catch Jonny Donahoe in a solo performance that is sure to stir up a variety of emotions, and not in a sweet and sentimental way, either.

Written by Duncan Macmillan with Donahoe, it’s a play about depression, or rather how a young English boy makes lists to keep his depressed mother from trying to kill herself—again.  Though the topic may sound like a “downer,” it is more like a celebration of the good things in life: Those small, tiny pleasures and upliftments that all the self-help books tell us to stop and notice, such as “ice cream,” “roller coasters,” “water fights,” “tea and biscuits,” and “that Beyonce and Gustav Mahler are 6^th cousins 5 times removed.”

As he ages from young kid to adult, the list gets more person-specific (“when someone lends you a book,” and “when someone reads a book you like”) and it gets longer and longer, finally topping out at 1 million (“listening to a vinyl record for the 1^st time and hearing the faint crackle…”).  It becomes so cumbersome with piles of pages, it has to be hauled around in 2 large, cardboard boxes, and he decides he’s had enough of it.

During this time period, the Listmaker falls in love with the woman who lent him a book, and they get married.  But his own depression becomes a barrier and she leaves him.  It is only after his mother finally succeeds with suicide that our young man faces his own emotional issues—and the list he had tried to throw away. He goes through the old boxes his wife had preserved, and he finally finds himself. We are left with a feeling that he might be able to connect again with this wife, too.

Even though this is a 1-man show, it hardly feels like that, because Donahoe enlists members of the audience to be his parents, his girlfriend, a school counselor, and even a Sock Dog, who plays a pretty important part in the young man’s recovery. Such “immersive theater” gives some persons anxiety attacks and might prevent them from seeing this insightful and touching play.  Don’t worry, because people are gently asked if they’d like to participate, and Donahoe seems to have an uncanny ability to choose audience members who are not only willing, but also terrific actors.

Photos by Matthew Murphy

Energetically directed by George Perrin, you’ll find Donahoe performing as he mingles among the audience and then up on the higher level and back down again, which gives the show a fast-moving pace. There really isn’t much of a set, but the way the chairs are laid out helps Donahoe move effortlessly from one area to another. The lighting and costuming are simple (no one credited for that work), which only adds to the focus and intensity of Donahoe’s acting.

When you see this play, you’ll be enchantingly entertained and you might even gain some insight in to what Winston Churchill called his “Black Dog.”  And you’ll root for this boy and then man, who kept his Mum alive for many years, and who finally found his own life, inside himself.

Barrow Street Theatre
27 Barrow Street
New York, NY
(212) 243-6262
Through March 29, 2015
Tickets: $55 to 75