Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody to have UK premiere at reconfigured Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre will present the UK premiere of Pulitzer winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody, directed by Atri Banerjee.

The production will open on 3 February, with previews from 28 January. Banerjee, formerly artistic lead of the Gate Theatre, will reconfigure Jermyn Street Theatre’s 70-seat auditorium for an in-the-round staging for the first time since its 2015 production of Lesere.

Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody is a modern retelling of the 15th-century morality play Everyman. In a different theatrical twist each night, the principal roles are assigned by lottery, meaning actors may play different characters at each performance. Every cast member memorises the entire script so they can step into another role at a moment’s notice. WhatsOnStage previously alighted on it as one of the top plays of 2017.

Banerjee said: “I’ve been a fan of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ work for a long time – his wit, his mischief, his extraordinary theatrical imagination – and I’m so excited that UK audiences will meet this play. Everybody takes on one of the oldest questions there is: what is the meaning of life, and what, in the end, really matters? Its answer unfolds in a form that is gloriously, unpredictably alive. And there’s something particularly fitting about staging such an iconoclastic play in Jermyn Street Theatre’s deconstructed, in-the-round space – a radical setting for such an unconventional piece. I’m looking forward to working with such an intrepid cast and creative team on this production.”