An uplifting story about love, life, family and mental health, Every Brilliant Thing, a play that has touched the hearts of many over the last five years, is on its last run. QTP Production is touring with the play across the country and will be performing the last run of the Bengaluru shows on July 7, at Shoonya Centre for Art and Somatic Practices, Lalbagh Road at 6.30 p.m. and July 8, at Ranga Shankara, J.P. Nagar, at 3.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Every Brilliant Thing is a live participative performance for ages 16 and above. This moving and intimate piece, directed by Quasar Thakore Padamsee, invites the audience to celebrate the joy found in everyday objects. A unique experience encourages everyone present to meet and interact with each other and the performer, and in doing so, take the story forward.
Performed by actor and theatremaker Vivek Madan, the play starts with the story of a seven-year-old boy and his hospitalised mother. As his ailing mother finds it hard to be happy, the young boy makes a list of things to cheer her up. Every Brilliant Thing was first produced by Paines Plough and Pentabus Theatre in June 2013 at Ludlow Fringe Festival in the UK. QTP Production first staged this production in 2019 as a live participative performance.
Speaking to The Hindu, Quasar Thakore Padamsee, popularly known as “Q”, said, “The play has been with us for five long years, and we still love performing it. But after a certain point, you want to put something aside and look at what’s new and what’s next. This was a collaborative decision by me and Vivek, who performs the play.”
“When we started looking at winding the show down, one of the things that came up strongly was to spend a consistent amount of time in Bengaluru and perform at various venues and spaces as it is a big wide city. Though we are touring across the country, the play was made in Bengaluru and has heavily influenced how we made this play. Our initial shows were performed here back in 2019, and we wanted to make a comeback to where we started from,” Q added.
Q says that when they started the play, people were hesitant to talk about mental health. “When we started performing the play in 2019, people did not want to speak about mental health. The large purpose of why we made this play was to normalize people talking about mental health.”
Vivek Madan, the solo performer of the play, says it is time a new set of performers picked this production up. “This production must end someway; it’s not often that we have the chance to officially close a play; most plays just die silently. This is the first time in my experience that we are closing an active play. But I also think that someone else should do it with their own interpretation because, at the end of the day, its theatre is still just a piece of art.”
Talking about performing solo in an interactive piece, Vivek said, “It is a challenge. But a challenge I really love. I think one of the reasons Q cast me was because interaction comes easily to me.”
Tickets for the show are available on BookMyShow.
QTP will also be touring around Tamil Nadu and Kerala with Every Brilliant Thing in the coming weeks, with a last show in Mumbai again. Details of the same are available on their social media handles.
