EVERYBODY (Richard Burton Company/Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)***

 

By Dave

Link: https://rwcmd.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/everybody

Available until: It’s hard to be sure when the site’s down but judging from the other RWCMD plays, it’ll probably be available till 24^th April.

Everybody is based on the 15^th century morality play Everyman by an unknown author. It is probably the most confusing play I’ve ever seen so just to warn you, this might be a terrible review. But I do think this play is worth seeing because it’s an opportunity to see some really talented and versatile performers.

Everyman is a sort of allegorical story about good and evil and what happens after death. The central character of Everyman, or Everybody in this updated version, wants to improve their life so things go better for them after they die. But they don’t want to do this alone. They want someone to go on this journey with them.

Everybody follows the same plot. The characters are renamed to more modern equivalents and a few scenes are changed, such as a whipping scene being changed to a stripping scene. The text is also more modern and refers to modern concepts such as social media and mobile phones, which weren’t around when I was young, never mind in the 15^th century. The RWCMD’s production has been further updated to mention the pandemic, with many of the actors making their first appearance wearing masks, and the drama school itself is also mentioned by name.

The play opens with a stage manager asking everyone to switch their phones off. She also talks about the play and it takes a while to work out if she’s a real stage manager or an actor. The stage manager comes onto the stage at various points during the play, most importantly in a casting role. There are five actors who basically all play the same five roles (or groups of roles – each role is actually 2-4 characters). On the night, mid-show, the actor pulls names out of a hat to decide which actor will play which role. They are familiar with all five and there are 120 different casting combinations.

Writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins really has come up with a brilliant idea for a play. Although the idea wasn’t originally his, he has made it relevant to the present day and the way the cast changes every night is inspired. It’s very challenging for the actors but it must be very exciting and they’ll learn a lot from being part of this play. The downside is that the plot is difficult to follow and because the characters in the play are representations of qualities and people rather than actual characters, it does seem more of an intellectual play than an emotional one. It’s hard to identify with characters if you don’t get a strong sense of who they are.

This left director Phillip Breen with a very difficult job but the play does still have some quite striking and interesting moments and there are some individual moments of emotion. He has also drilled his cast very well because they all seem very comfortable with the roles they are assigned on the night, which took place on 15^th February.

The actors all give powerful, committed and brave performances. Natalie Valentine opens the show well and while another of her characters, Understanding, doesn’t always live up to her name, it’s possible the name isn’t intended as an adjective but as a verb. Someone who is understanding is usually seem as being sympathetic but the act of understanding something doesn’t always involve sympathy. Stuart Quigley is all the more chilling as Death because there’s an unnerving hint of humour in his performance. Maybe Death is laughing at us all. Tallulah Evans’ Love doesn’t really live up to her name but I think that’s intentional. She’s doing what’s in the script and you probably can’t do it nicely.

Bookie Schwartz takes the central role of Everybody and is deeply sincere in her character’s quest to live a better life. Blair Gybaah is emotionally powerful in his three roles. Emma Rivers, Matilda Rowe and James Grimm also play their roles with such confidence and security, it’s incredible to think they might never even have rehearsed in this combination. I doubt they’ve had 120 complete run-throughs but I’m always happy to be corrected!

The story missed the mark a bit with me and I’m sure that’s down to me, not the production. But as always with the RWCMD there are some impressive and very brave performances and it’s worth watching it just to see the incredible professional actors of the future.