EVERY BRILLIANT THING- AN UPLIFTING PARTICIPATORY PLAY ON MENTAL HEALTH AND CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

Participatory theatre is a form of theatre in which the audience interacts with the performers. Cited as avant-garde, the genre is unorthodox in the sense that it breaks "the fourth wall" that traditionally separated the performer from the audience. The performance engages the audience, making them active participants. Every Brilliant Thing, a participative play written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe about addressing mental health, family and love, invites the audience to share the joy found in everyday objects. 

The play- an intrepid one-man show, performed by underrated Vivek Madaan and adapted for the Indian audience by Quasar Thakore Padamsee has at its crux a boy who compiled a list of "brilliant things" for his 'amma' to cheer her up when she attempted suicide. Only seven, the perplexed boy seeks answers to his baba's rather unconvincing remark-"She did something stupid." 

With the pandemic induced stressors and the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, the conversations around mental health are soaring. It has become a topic of much concern and healthy discussion. In the recent research conducted by the World Health Organization(WHO) nearly 56 million people suffer from depression and around 38 million people suffer from anxiety disorders in India. In a country where mental illness is as big an issue like poverty, Every Brilliant Thing is a thoughtful and positive conversation starter. 

Staged in an intimate setting and perhaps, not to be mistaken into thinking as only comedy, the director Quasar Thakore Padamsee says, " The story is human. So is the humour. It is just a guy telling you the story of his life and a list that he started when he was seven, and how he kept at it till today." Emphasising on the play's grave foundation- mental health and suicide, he further says, " It's the actual topic we are dealing with that is so much more compelling. Depression is something that, bloody hell, nobody even wants to talk about." The empath has, certainly, observed that mental illness is much more widespread than ever imagined. 

Quasar rewrote the famous play with an intent to resonate with the Indian audience. The ' list ' has ' gully cricket', ' ice cream', ' pillow fights', and every perceivable object that brought him joy. The audience, being "wilful contributors," to the narrative participates in reading out Vivek's long list. It delicately captures every slice of life. It talks about the battles we are ashamed to speak of. The audience is transported to different moods as the protagonist describes the different times in his life. 

The play opened last year and was performed in The Hindu Theatre Fest 2019. Hailed as one of the most intimate theatre experiences, the play took to the online medium around in the form of live storytelling performance. The performance is a part of Paytm Insider's recently- announced theatre initiative, Front and Centre, in a bid to re-imagine theatre in a digital format. Early into the lockdown, Thakore realised that several people he knew were struggling with the mental trauma of social isolation and decided that this was an important story to tell at this time.