SECOND HALF PRODUCTIONS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH NICA BURNS AND PAINES PLOUGH PRESENT
THE WEST END PREMIERE OF
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
WRITTEN BY DUNCAN MACMILLAN WITH JONNY DONAHOE
DIRECTED BY JEREMY HERRIN AND DUNCAN MACMILLAN
OPENING @SOHOPLACE FROM 1 AUGUST 2025
SEASON INCLUDES LENNY HENRY, JONNY DONAHOE, AMBIKA MOD AND SUE PERKINS
Second Half Productions in association with Nica Burns and Paines Plough today announce the West End premiere of Every Brilliant Thing, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe and directed by Jeremy Herrin and Duncan Macmillan. Running @sohoplace theatre for a strictly limited run from 1 August – 27 September.
First presented by Paines Plough at Roundabout at Summerhall in 2014, this wildly popular, one-person play has delighted audiences in over 80 countries worldwide, been adapted into a highly successful HBO film and now debuts in the West End @sohoplace, performed by four exceptional actors. The season opens with Lenny Henry (August in England, Bush Theatre; Othello, Northern Broadsides) followed in date order by Jonny Donahoe (co-creator and original performer Every Brilliant Thing), Ambika Mod (One Day, Netflix; This is Going to Hurt, BBC) and Sue Perkins (The Great British Bake Off, BBC; Just a Minute, BBC Radio 4).
Every Brilliant Thing is designed by Vicki Mortimer with lighting design by Jack Knowles, sound design by Tom Gibbons and casting by Jessica Ronane CDG.
Opening nights on Thursday 7 August (Lenny Henry), Thursday 21 August (Jonny Donahoe), Wednesday 10 September (Sue Perkins) and Thursday 11 September (Ambika Mod). Please find link to the performance schedule: https://ticketing.sohoplace.org/tickets/series/SPEBT01M
You’re seven years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy. You start a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for. You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling.
A child attempts to ease their mother’s depression by creating a list of all the best things in the world. Through adulthood, as the list grows, they learn the deep significance it has on their own life. Every Brilliant Thing is a comedy about the lengths we will go for those we love.
Tickets are on sale now via sohoplace.org, with 50 tickets per show at £35.
Lenny Henry said, “I am thrilled to be working with the creative geniuses Duncan Macmillan and Jeremy Herrin. Duncan’s brilliant script is so touching and celebrates the importance of finding joy in the everyday – despite life’s obstacles. I cannot wait to perform this important play in the intimate setting of @sohoplace.”
Jonny Donahoe said“It’s actually, properly BRILLIANT to be finally bringing Every Brilliant Thing to the West End @sohoplace with Duncan, Jeremy and everyone at Second Half Productions. It’s been 12 years since Duncan and I did two little scratch shows at a Shropshire poetry festival and a rural community centre; a decade since we ran off-Broadway for four and a half months; and a year since we started putting it back together at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. I am over the moon to be back performing this show that Duncan and I are so proud of, and to be joined by such an array of talent in Lenny, Sue and Ambika: it’s a dream come true.”
Ambika Mod said“I have loved this play since first seeing it at the Fringe as a student comedian when I was 19 years old, so it’s a dream come true to now be able to bring it to the West End with the original team, as an adult actor, almost exactly 10 years later.”
Sue Perkins said“I was blown away when I read Duncan’s sparkling script and I’m so excited and honoured to get the chance to perform it @sohoplace.”
Jeremy Herrin, Founding Director of Second Half Productions said, “I first encountered Every Brilliant Thing 11 years ago and it has stayed with me ever since. I am therefore thrilled that Second Half Productions together with Nica Burns and Paines Plough are bringing Duncan and Jonny’s extraordinary show to the West End for the first time, and to such a beautiful theatre at Soho Place. It’s an enormous privilege to be collaborating with the ever brilliant Duncan again to direct these exceptional performers – Lenny, Jonny, Ambika and Sue – who will each bring their own unique take on this moving, witty and joyful show. This is a modestly profound, genuinely uplifting piece of theatre magic that we need now, more than ever.”
Nica Burns said, “This joyful and entertaining play is perfect for our beautiful, intimate auditorium @sohoplace as we share and celebrate all the reasons to enjoy life. Each of our outstanding actors will bring their own special magic to Duncan Macmillan’s funny and heart-warming writing under the direction of award-winning Jeremy Herrin. An utterly delightful evening.”
Every Brilliant Thing is produced by Second Half Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Rodeo/Tilted, and Winkler & Smalberg, in association with Nica Burns and Paines Plough.
CAST
Lenny Henry
Lenny Henryhas risen from being a cult star on children’s television to becoming one of Britain’s best known television performers, as well as a writer, philanthropist and award-winning stage actor. Lenny’s recent acting screen credits include Netflix’s Missing You, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Rings of Power, Broadchurch, The Syndicate and the biographic film Danny and The Human Zoo. In theatre, Lenny has starred in The Comedy of Errors at The National, Fences at the Duchess Theatre and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar Warehouse.
As a co-founder and public face of Comic Relief he has played a central role in the charity raising over £1.6 billion since 1985. Lenny is a leading advocate for diversity in the arts and has established his production company, Esmerelda, a centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University, written two books on the topic and co-hosted the podcast Black British Lives Matter. He was awarded a Knighthood in 2015 for services to drama and charity and was a Trustee of the National Theatre from 2016 to 2023.
Lenny has written two memoirs with Faber alongside a series of children’s books published through Pan Macmillan. In 2023, his “innovative” ITV1 drama series Three Little Birds received critical acclaim as did his five star, one man play August in England which Lenny wrote and performed in at The Bush Theatre.
Jonny Donahoe
Jonny Donahoe is a comedian, writer and performer. He is the co-creator and original performer of Every Brilliant Thing, which has now played in over seventy countries across six continents. He has also written and performed for over ten years with his touring comedy group Jonny & The Baptists. They have performed their shows at the Royal National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Barrow Street Theatre, New York, Soho Theatre, Downstage Theatre Wellington, Liverpool Everyman and Battersea Arts Centre amongst many others.
Jonny was nominated for a Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Every Brilliant Thing. Jonny and the Baptists have been nominated for a Chortle Award, Hackney Empire New Act of the Year and the Musical Comedy Awards. He won a BBC Audio Drama Award for his work on Sound Heap (Max Fun/Auddy).
Other plays include Anna/Anastasia (Oran Mor/Traverse/APA), 30 Christmases, (New Diorama, London/ OFS, Oxford), Forgiveness (UK & International Tour), short plays include The Sound Ours Hearts Made (Trafalgar Studios/Paines Plough) and There Was an Old Woman (Soho Theatre).
He has appeared regularly on The Now Show, Sketchorama, Fresh from the Fringe, and Infinite Monkey Cage (all BBC Radio 4), and Live from TV Centre (BBC TV/Battersea Arts Centre), amongst many others. His performance in Every Brilliant Thing was recorded at Barrow Street Theatre by World of Wonder, and released as a special on HBO.
Ambika Mod
Ambika Modisan actor, comedian and writer. She began her career as a stand-up, sketch and improv comedian aged 19, writing and performing her own material around the country and at several Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.
Her breakout role came in 2022 in the hit, widely acclaimed BBC One series This is Going to Hurt as junior doctor ‘Shruti Acharya’, starring opposite Ben Whishaw. For her performance, Ambika won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Broadcast Press Guild Award for Best Actress, and was selected for the highly prestigious BAFTA Breakthrough programme.
In 2024, Ambika starred in the lead role of ‘Emma Morley’ in the massively popular Netflix series One Day, based on David Nicholls’ best-selling novel of the same name. The show was a critical and public success, becoming Netflix’s #1 viewed show globally shortly after its release, and remaining in the top 10 for several weeks. For her performance, Ambika was nominated for a Gotham Award for Outstanding Performance in a Limited Series and a Royal Television Society Award for Leading Actress. In 2024, she was also named as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Europe and included on the Time NEXT100 and Sunday Times Young Power lists.
Ambika is currently starring in the TV series The Stolen Girl for Disney+ and later this year she will star alongside Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, and Salma Hayek in the Romain Gavras directed adventure comedy film, Sacrifice.
Sue Perkins
Sue Perkins is one of Britain’s best-loved presenters; her quick-fire, self-deprecating wit making her a household name and firm favourite on British television for over twenty years. She’s probably best known for being one half of Mel & Sue, a duo who stole the nations heart on The Great British Bake Off. Sue has been Grierson and BAFTA nominated for her travel documentaries and is the host of Radio 4’s flagship comedy show, Just a Minute. She has written two Sunday Times best-selling memoirs and starred in two series of hit comedy Hitmen for Sky One, as well as roles in Caitlin Moran’s How To Build A Girl and Paul Feig’s Last Christmas.
CREATIVES
Duncan Macmillan
Duncan Macmillan is a writer for theatre, television and film. His theatre work includes The Seagull (adapt. Chekhov, with Thomas Ostermeier); Lungs; People, Places and Things; Every Brilliant Thing; Rosmersholm (adapt. Henrik Ibsen); 1984 (adapt. George Orwell, co-written and co-directed with Robert Icke); City Of Glass (adapt. Paul Auster) and 2071 (co-written with Chris Rapley). Other work includes The Forbidden Zone; Wunschloses Unglück (adapt. Peter Handke); Reise Durch die Nacht (adapt. Friederike Mayröcker) and the English language version of Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy Of The People (Duke of York’s Theatre). His work has been performed throughout the world, including the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Royal Court, Almeida, Barbican, St Ann’s Warehouse, Melbourne Theatre Company, Berliner Ensemble, Hamburg Schauspielhaus, Schauspielhaus Köln, Burgtheater Wien, Vesturport, Kansallisteatteri, Nationaltheatret Oslo and in the repertory of the Schaubühne Berlin, as well as the Edinburgh Festival, the Manchester International Festival, Salzburg Festival, Festival d’Avignon and Theatertreffen, in the West End and on Broadway. His screen work has appeared on the BBC, HBO, Netflix and at the Berlin and London Film Festivals. Reise Durch die Nacht was awarded the Nestroy Preis for Best German Language Production. Both 1984 and People, Places and Things were nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards, and Rosmersholm was nominated for Best Revival.
Jeremy Herrin
Theatre includes: Fool for Love (Steppenwolf); The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Chichester); People, Places and Things (Trafalgar Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s Theatre); A Mirror (Trafalgar Theatre); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); A Mirror (Almeida); Best of Enemies (Young Vic/ West End, South Bank Show Award for Best Theatre Production); All My Sons (The Old Vic); The Visit, or the Old Lady Comes to Call; The Plough and the Stars; Statement of Regret (National Theatre); People, Places and Things (National Theatre/ Headlong/ West End/ UK tour/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); This House (National Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatres/ West End); Labour of Love (Olivier Award for Best Comedy); The Nether; That Face; South Downs; Absent Friends; Death and the Maiden; The Glass Menagerie (West End); Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/ West End/ Broadway, Evening Standard Award for Best Director); Junkyard; The Absence of War; The Nether (Headlong); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (International Tour); The Tempest; Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Almost Famous (Old Globe, San Diego); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith/ West End); Haunted Child; The Heretic; Kin; Spur of the Moment; Off the Endz; The Priory (Olivier Award for Best Comedy); Tusk Tusk; The Vertical Hour; That Face (Royal Court); South Downs; Uncle Vanya (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre); Marble (The Abbey, Dublin); The Family Reunion (Donmar Warehouse); Blackbird (Market Theatre, Johannesburg).
Jeremy Herrin was previously Artistic Director of Headlong and is a Founding Director of Second Half Productions.
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BOX OFFICE INFORMATION
Box Office
0330 333 5963
4 Soho Place | London | W1D 3BG
Access Bookings/Customer Ticketing Enquiries: 0330 333 5962
Group Bookings: 0330 333 5963
@sohoplace
1 August – 27 September 2025
Performance schedule
Lenny Henry: 1 August – 30 August
Jonny Donahoe: 13 August – 1 September
Ambika Mod: 2 September – 26 September
Sue Perkins: 4 September – 27 September
Ticket prices
From £35
Groups and education rates available
Fair access: 50% off across all bands
Access @sohoplace
BSL interpreted:
Thursday 21 August, 2.30pm (Lenny Henry)
Friday 26 September, 6pm (Ambika Mod)
Captioned performance:
Monday 1 September, 7.30pm (Jonny Donahoe)
Audio Described performance:
Saturday 20 September, 7.30pm (Sue Perkins)
@sohoplace has wheelchair access on stalls level and wider seats available for patrons with access needs.
Ticketing @sohoplace
@sohoplace has contactless ticketing for every performances. Tickets will be issued electronically 48 hours prior to the performance.
Cloakroom @sohoplace
The theatre has a large cloakroom that can be used by all patrons free of charge. Out of respect for patrons and the auditorium, we request that large bags are checked into the cloak room.
Feedback @sohoplace
We welcome all feedback on patrons’ experience with the venue and encourage patrons to email us [email protected]