Every Brilliant Thing at Summerhall – Edinburgh Fringe review

An in-the-round space provides something useful – the chance to see just how few dry eyes there are in a house after a performance. In the case of Every Brilliant Thing, the number is remarkably few. 

The show is one of those special Fringe stories – Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s tale first burst into the theatre world in 2014, before productions over the world and even a HBO special appeared in a feverish celebration of a heartwarming, hilarious, hour-long piece.

Loosely telling the story of a young boy who is trying to ease his mother’s depression by creating a list of all the best things in the world, it’s now back at the same venue for its tenth anniversary. Like Nation (programmed before it), the play’s success rests squarely on the shoulders of the interplay between audience and performer – it is audience members who read out different numbered entries.

Macmillan directs this new iteration of the show though little feels different – Donahoe (now bearded, compared with a decade ago) cartwheels around the audience, continuing to find heartbreak in the stirrings of song, or the pangs of love in the smallest touch of a hand.

What the play displays, in its return ten years on, is a reflection on just how far the Roundabout has come – this form of direct address, communal storytelling has become much more commonplace as artists celebrate that unassailable link between performer and crowd. There’s no doubt it’ll do well with audiences: any fringe completists will be making sure they don’t miss a hit from years gone by. 

See all of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage.