A story of a brilliant list

It starts with a list: a list of everything brilliant about the world.

Every Brilliant Thing is a one-person show that follows one woman’s pursuit creating a comprehensive list of everything wonderful about life for their depressed mother.

It charts the story of this list from her childhood through adulthood and is built upon through the highs and lows of their life.

However, she is never alone in this endeavour; the story becomes a communal experience with audience members playing an active role in crafting the story in hilarious and heart-warming ways.

The result is a joyful and inescapably relevant play, written by English playwright Duncan Macmillan about living life to the fullest and everything that comes with that.

In what The Guardian described as “one of the funniest shows you’ll ever see about depression”, Every Brilliant Thing offers audiences a window into how we heal and the life-affirming power of everyday joys.

The list includes: #1 Ice cream, #2 Water fights, #319 Laughing so hard you shoot milk out of your nose, #575 Piglets, and #7771 Bonfires.

“You’re not alone, you’re not weird, you will get through it, and you’ve just got to hold on,” Macmillan said about the themes of his play in a 2014 interview.

“That’s a very uncool, unfashionable thing for someone to say, but I really mean it. I didn’t see anyone discussing suicidal depression in a useful or interesting or accurate way.”

This is Geelong Contemporary Theatre’s inaugural show.

The company’s mission is to tell stories for today by creating theatre that is urgent and necessary for today’s audiences.

The show stars Rachelle Lachland Goulter, a Canadian-Australian actor who has recently returned to her country of birth after a rich and diverse career creating theatre, improv, and film in and around Vancouver.

Every Brilliant Thing opened at The Potato Shed last week and will have performances tomorrow (Saturday, September 23) at 1pm and 7.30pm.