Day 16

The production of Everyman at the National Theatre was easily the coolest thing I have ever seen on stage. Even though we had read the script in class, I still didn't know what to expect. I had looked up production photos, and the website had a warning for drug references and language, which the script we read had none of, so I figured it was going to be a bit different. It was a lot different. In the best way possible, though. The text was adapted by Carol Ann Duffy, and it changed almost everything about the show while keeping the original message in tact. Not only did it make the show funny, poignant, and smart, but it made it much more accessible to modern audiences.

One of my favorite things about the show was how they still made references to the old text/language while completely changing the text itself. There would be little rhyming couplets here and there, or quotes or references from the Bible. Also, even though this is a small thing, I'm glad they kept his name Everyman. I'm not sure what I was expecting when they started the show, but since the show was much more human rather than representational, as I felt the script was, I wasn't sure if they would refer to him as Everyman. Not only did they do that, but they gave him the nickname "Ev", and called the younger version of him "Everyboy". It gave the show a Brechtian effect, and reminded the audience they were watching a play. It was incredibly effective and memorable.

While the text was extremely different from the original, and I can see how others could see it as they were "trying too hard" to make it modern, I thought it made the show that much more appealing to modern audiences. The show was the definition of theatrical, and it's one of the most memorable pieces of theatre I've ever seen.

nationaltheatre.org.uk