Every Brilliant Thing

You’re six years old. Mom’s in the hospital. Dad says she’s “done something stupid.” She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. You leave it on her pillow. You know she read it because she’d corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own. A play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love.


