Suicide, comedy: a warmhearted pairing in ‘Every Brilliant Thing’

Duncan Macmillan has turned that notion on its head with the one-character play “Every Brilliant Thing,” by restoring insistent meaning to various things, large and small, that make life worth living, and by making the ultimate rejection of all them that is suicide heartbreaking, as one would expect, but also funny.

Yes, and many people are hit by especially challenging bouts of depression during the holidays, which is just one reason to allow yourself to laugh and cry through “Every Brilliant Thing.”

Donahoe waits as the audience gets situated and then darts about New York’s Barrow Theater, where three performances of the play were filmed last year, distributing pieces of paper to audience members.

Each slip of paper contains a number and a descriptive word, phrase or sentence, such as “ice cream,” “surprises,” “falling in love,” “the color yellow.”

Donahoe begins to tell his story, of having the blissful ignorance of early childhood disrupted by his mother’s first suicide attempt.

The man is instructed to ask “why” after every one of his “father’s” attempts to explain Mum’s actions.

His response is to begin a list of “Every Brilliant Thing” life has to offer as a way of convincing his mother that there are thousands of reasons to go on.

[...] here, of course, is where the audience participates, responding each time Donahoe calls out the number on their slip of paper.

Perhaps beside the point is better, because reminders of beautiful things are only effective if the only reason for sadness and depression is that you’ve momentarily forgotten about the taste of ice cream.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and co-host of “The Do List” every Friday morning at 6:22 and 8:22 on KQED FM, 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento.