The play “Everybody” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, was wonderful I enjoyed every part of it. Jacobs-Jenkins is a true genius, the way he interpreted the 15^th century play “Everyman” to modern days was incredible. I loved that not every one play is ever the same. The actors don’t know which part they will play, until they take a ball from the lottery.  So how are the actors able to play their roles, as the usher (Jocelyn Bioh) states at the beginning of the play each actor has memorized every part of the play.

The play is centered around the idea of death and how no one really understands what happens once we die. The play starts out with God also played by Jocelyn Bioh, who askes Death (Marylouise Burke) to bring everybody so that they can give a presentation of how they spend their lives on earth. It was interesting to see how Death went around the room asking people if they would like to go and meet god. At first it looked like Death was picking people at random to the point that when she came around aisle M were most of our class was sitting I was scared she would ask me. However, she asked a gentle who was sitting close to me if he knew who god was. Once one of the actors asked Death to prove that she was real and all the other actors stood up I knew it wasn’t random anymore. But it was interesting to place the actors among the audience. Than the actors go on by asking death if they can bring somebody along with them, which Death agrees to saying that they had until she changed into her traveling outfit to find someone. I found it interesting that Death was funny because the matter of death barely brings joy to people in the real world.

On May 12, 2017, we had a chance to see Lakisha Michelle May play the main role of Everybody.  Now Lakisha’s character Everybody struggled to find what made her life on Earth so meaningful, which she tells the audience through a dream. I thought it was interesting that most part of the play is played out as if it was a dream, since may say that when you die it’s like you’re in a deep slumber.  Throughout her dream Everybody first encounters Friendship, now Friendship (David Patrick Kelly) gives a basic description of what friends are and the things they do. Friendship tells Everybody that he would go to hell and back for her, so she thinks that since he said this he would journey with her to meet God. However, when she tells Friendship about the journey he says he can’t go because there’s not a guarantee that he’ll come back. I thought this was very important, because once you die you never come back.

Since Friendship doesn’t want to go, Everybody seeks out to Kinship and Cousinship. Once she tells them about the journey she must take to meet God and if they would go with her, since they know everything she has done since she was a baby. However, Kinship and Cousinship refuse to go with her. Now to Cousinship points out something every important to Everybody, she says that Everybody is being selfish because she is asking Kinship and Cousinship to stop living and journey with her for them to recall her memories.  Cousinship continues by thanking Everybody for letting her know that she should start recording all her memorable moments in this world, for one day she too would go on this journey and present her life before God. As Everybody becomes more desperate she looks for her Stuff.  She tells Stuff about the journey she must take, but Stuff tells her he can’t go with her because she has too much of him for her to carry. I loved the way Stuff and Everybody interacted, they looked like a couple. When explained to Everybody that he really doesn’t belong to her and that people always become attached to him, it looked like he was breaking up with her. Stuff had a point that once we die we don’t get buried with all of our belongs.

My favorite part of the play was when the guy stopped the play and said he was leaving because he didn’t like the fact that Everybody was ignoring him.  At first I thought he was an actual person, but then he tells Everybody that he is Love. Everybody is desperate to find someone to journey with her, so she tells Love she would do anything he asks just if he goes with her.  Love tells her to take her clothes off and run around while repeating what he says. I thought this was very important because people do stupid things for love.  I really enjoyed when the two skeletons came out and started dancing, it reminded me of the Day of the Dead. As Death returns, she is ready to take Everybody with her, but then Understanding, Strength, Mind, Beauty, and Senses all show up to go along with Everybody on this journey.  It was interesting to see that once the time came for them to go on the journey, they each started backing away. Beauty was the first to go, which is true for when one dies you turn to dust. Than the Senses stared fading away, that the Mind went away along with Strength and Understanding.  But the only ones that stayed with Everybody was Love and All the Shitty Evil Things. In other words, once we die the only things that stay alive are the love that we create and the bad things that we leave behind.