Dunedin Hall has secured Gavin Crawford for this month’s staged reading of Every Brilliant Thing.
Due to Crawford’s busy television schedule, it was not confirmed until recently that Crawford would be available.
Set and lighting director Steve Lucas has worked on two productions of Every Brilliant Thing, the second time in Prince Edward County in 2019 with Crawford.
Lucas chose this show for a staged reading, something Dunedin has presented during Small Halls Festival for several years, because it was created specifically for church basements and community halls.
“It is really fun and very exciting,” said Lucas. “It’s a very funny play and it’s very light but it also touches on some really wonderful deep human feelings. And Gavin is phenomenal at this. That’s the thing most people don’t know, they know him from his funny side but he’s actually an incredible actor.”
The play was written as a one-man show for a stand-up comic with an abundance of opportunities for improvised interactions with the audience.
There is a little bit of audience participation, which Lucas says is completely voluntary and not scary.
He said the show shines in a low-tech production and provides a very intimate experience, ripe with opportunities to create spontaneous magical moments between the performer and the audience.
“It takes a special kind of performer to treat that with care but also to lift it up and that’s why Gavin is perfect for this.”
Created by UK playwright Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe, the play is about a child who attempts to cope with his mother’s suicide attempt by making a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world, everything that’s worth living for: 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Burning things. 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose. 5. Construction cranes. 6. Him.
As the child grows, so does the list. Looking back on a life of ups and downs, the man takes the audience on an inspiring journey that celebrates finding joy in the mundane and being grateful for the simple pleasures.
Lucas said part of the fun of doing a reading is that there is no rehearsal, making for a very spontaneous show.
“It’s very alive and it’s a little bit scary for the actor as well, which I really love. You’re seeing something that’s only going to happen once and that’s what’s special about it,” said Lucas. “There’s a real communion, a give and take between an audience and a performer. In this one it’s really made very apparent because no one is sitting in the dark, you are all right there together.”
In attendance to introduce the play will be the original director Dylan Trowbridge who championed the first run with Crawford. He and the original stage manager will be at the VIP dinner before the show, which is sold out.
Every Brilliant Thing: A Staged Reading is at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the Dunedin Village Hall. Cash Bar. 19+ event. Tickets cost $30 and are available via www.smallhallsfestival.ca.