Review: EVERY BRILLIANT THING at USD Theatre, Vermillion, SD

The production of EVERY BRILLIANT THING in the Arena Theatre at USD’s Warren M. Lee’s Center for the Fine Arts in Vermillion delivers a message of hope amidst a subtle miasma of subject so taboo as to be relegated to the most awkward and vague intimations in obituaries.  It's a beautiful journey that the audience shares as they experience an opportunity to see other's reaction to this production.

Suicide is not a typical running storyline in a comedy, and yet, playwrights Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe have crafted a piece of literature as a “one man” show that is undeniably accessible to an intimate performance space. The audience is prepped to “participate” in the show by the actor as they arrive and choose their preferred seating.  There are three levels of seating in the performance space that are mostly comfortable for an 80 minute journey through this actor’s life story (aged 7 to  adult). Whether intentional or not, the choice of your seating seems to affect the audience member’s level of comfort (i.e. feelings of exposure) as the actor navigates the heartbreaking details of living with neglect as an undercurrent in his formative years. There is  one parent who is so unhappy, they no longer wish to live and another that is too emotionally inaccessible to the child to notice that he is drowning in a sea of anxiety and fear.  His coping mechanism is to create a list of reasons to live for his mother and therein lies the opportunity for humor to blossom quite organically early in the production. 

Kaden Hopkins is charming, affable and engaging in his presentation of this show and his wit and timing are very nicely measured throughout the performance.His physical movement in the space amongst the audience is purposeful and it is apparent that a certain amount of his business is “off the cuff” and that makes him all the more endearing to his audience. 

The emotional shifts to the most difficult moments of the story were genuine, but I would encourage Mr. Hopkins to take the extra seconds to digest the gravity, and reflect the weight of those feelings to the audience in a more visceral and measured way.  By the time the production was beginning to wind down, he had the audience in a state of complex emotional reciprocity. I would advise that the Mr. Hopkins should feel permission to take extra time to feel it in every cell as he wraps it up.  The appreciation of the audience was a visual and physical eruption of applause and ovation, and it was a much deserved accolade for Mr. Hopkins. 

The artistic direction of this piece of theatrical ingenuity was a labor of grace by Ryan Bernier, an MFA student at the University. It was impressive to note the levels of emotional performance he was able to guide this actor through. In some ways this production could be a healing experience for audience members;  a subject that was handled by playwrights, director and actor with utmost respect for the “after experience” of all the questions surrounding a suicide by individual audience members. 

EVERY BRILLIANT THING is the USD Theatre Department’s entry into The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2025.