Dramaturg's Note

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody modernizes the anonymously written 15th century morality play Everyman. While both versions focus on a single person’s journey through the experience of dying, Everybody takes a more modern and open-ended approach to the core concepts with which the morality play grapples: the search for redemption, along with the search for the meaning of life and death. In the original, Everyman faces archetypal characters that convey messages about Christian teachings. These characters engage in a kind of combat to win over the soul of Everyman, who initially gives in to temptation, but repents just in time to go to heaven, proclaiming, “Into Thy hands, Lord, my soul I commend; Receive it, Lord, that it be not lost.”

Jacobs-Jenkins’ 21st century take focuses on the character Everybody’s journey to the acceptance that they are dying. Going through the play, Everybody is given the same mission as Everyman: to find an account for “how you have lived your life and why” and prepare to present it to God. However, in Everybody, God is kept in a more agnostic light; characters throughout question His existence - some accept Him as real and others do not. More importantly, it is never specified exactly which God or which faith is represented. This allows the audience to connect with the piece on a personal level, rather than through the lens of any particular religion. Through his smart adaptation, Jacobs-Jenkins has effectively refashioned the play - Everybody is a play of mortality, not morality.

Reviews from its 2017 premiere highlight how the dramaturgy of the play allows the audience to wrestle with the role of luck in our individual lives. As New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantly notes, “As life is determined by chance, so is the casting of this production’s ensemble,” noting how the play’s themes are baked into its production choices. Everybody will die. Yet the specifics of death remain wrapped in mystery. Maria Paz Alegre of Theatre is Easy adds that the “affecting and inventive new adaptation of an ancient morality play, filled with biting wit and shrewd commentary on the state of humanity...reminds the audience that there may come a time where their life choices are called into question, and if so, what will they be left with? What will matter in the end?” Everybody does not seek to answer these questions. Rather, it leaves that work to you.