Emily Leslie

On an aimless evening in Soho, fortunate delivered a return ticket to this show- and that’s not where the luck ended. To stumble across this marvel of a piece of theatre was to find pieces of a puzzle that I hadn’t seen before. We train our minds to be positive because of the negativity bias we all have, and we do what we can to protect ourselves and others…but even in light of a Million Brilliant things, we can find ourselves in darkness. That’s where this show reminds of our common humanity, vulnerability, and connectedness. In this togetherness, we find pleasure and joy again. This evening, Lenny Henry was the magic component, the only actor in many roles, the director of audience members, conductor of our emotions…his generous, soft, kind, sensitive and entertaining manner drew us together in laughter and tears, song and story. Audience members gamely, warmly, bravely accepted the invitation to contribute to the masterpiece- their vulnerabilities and courage, as well as wit and awareness bringing yet another layer of tenderness to the overall experience. A very sensitive topic, delivered without a sense of being emotionally manipulated, not sentimental, no romanticising of the subject. The production was still in its preview period this evening but I dearly hope it remains as raw and fresh as this, it reflects the plays themes of finding joy in amongst the vulnerable moments. It is astonishing how many random numbers the actor has to learn!!! The very fact that the show switches up the actors (Ambika Mod, of One Day, Sue Perkins, Minnie Driver, Jonny Donahoe) during the course of this run shows how universal its themes are- each actor will bring their unique angle (I wonder how much- if they will shift musical references and so on?). 100,000, 001 theatre that weaves the darker threads along with the lighter ones and shows us what a beautiful tapestry our lives are because of this mix, not despite it.