‘Everybody’ Opens Streaming at CMU Drama (Tues., 3/16/21)

EVERYBODY by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, streams March 16-18 and March 20.

Remakes in live theater are different from remakes in the movies. Typically the original is over 100 years old, sometimes much older. Most modern remakes keep the plot outline and major characters but essentially create a new play, and many are very good. Recent highlights in Pittsburgh theater have included Stupid Fucking Bird (from Chekhov’s The Seagull) and An Octoroon (from the 1859 race melodrama). Now comes a modern version of a real oldie. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the New York-based playwright and Octoroon remaker, has one called Everybody. This is an update of Everyman, the morality play that was popular in the 1500s, when many people were not particularly interested in repenting but would watch it being done on stage. Like the original, Everybody is allegorical. Characters include God, Time, Friendship, Stuff, and Death. Unlike the original, Everybody was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. Carnegie Mellon School of Drama streams the play for free at select times March 16-18 and 20. (M.V.) 

Share on Social Media