Everybody (The Pershing Square Signature Center) by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

I love theatre that breaks away from the norm; be it in staging, costuming, production or idea.  Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody is unconventional in almost every one of these categories. 

I didn’t mind the minimal staging, though the grave scene looks like it was taken from a Star Trek episode.

Based on the 15th century morality tale, Everyman, Everybody is a trippy ride toward the end we all meet.  With a few exceptions, the terrific cast doesn’t know which will be their parts until the performance begins so every cast member must know every part and every performance is unique.  The writing is gorgeous and the cast is up to the task.

When God, who is also an usher, (Jocelyn Bioh) demands that Death, the riotously funny Marylouise Burke, round up Everybody for an accounting of a life lived, the hilarity and horror ensues.

Everybody is told that if they can find someone to accompany them they can bring a companion on this journey from which no one will return.  Everybody proceeds to call upon and be deserted by, Friendship, Kinship and Cousinship.  Everybody struggles with and mourns the losses of Strength, Mind, Beauty and Senses.

In the end, only Love and All the Shitty Evil Things and Stuff, go into the grave with Everybody.  In the end, only Love and All the Shitty Evil Things and Stuff, go into the grave with all of us.

Go see Everybody.  It serves to remind us, in a way that perhaps nothing else can, how truly alike we all are.