California Repertory or Cal Rep’s latest season of student productions launches today with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins dark comedy “Everybody” — adapted from the medieval morality play “Everyman” — in which someone named Everybody dies and is asked by God to account for their life.
Written anonymously in the early 1500s, “Everyman” — one of the first recorded plays in the English language — uses allegory to personify characters such as Everyman (representing all of us) and Death to make a point about Catholic salvation.
Jacobs-Jenkins’ adaptation, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama in 2018, modernizes the play while keeping its essential tale.
But the play also requires its nine cast members to be prepared to essentially draw straws before each show to see who will play the lead role for that performance — underscoring the idea that Everybody could be any of us.
“The title role is chosen by chance at each performance, sending a different performer into the unknown every night,” Cal Rep’s website states. “‘Everybody’ asks the question waiting for us all: when everything else falls away, what remains?”
Cal Rep representative Drew Kelly calls the play “unabashedly theatrical” in asking questions about love, identity and life while balancing absurdity and humor.
Directed by Angie Scott, Cal Rep recommends the play for ages 12 and up due to its strong language and profanity, mature themes of death and dying, and partial nudity.
The producing arm of CSULB’s Theater Department, Cal Rep, has been staging new works and adapting classics since 1989.
Also mark your calendars for Cal Rep’s later fall productions: “Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Sw*fties” opening Oct. 16, a “pop-fueled theatrical ride,” according to its website; H.G. Wells’ iconic “The War of the Worlds” opening Nov. 6; and Molière’s 17th-century comedy “The Miser,” opening Nov. 20.
California Repertory’s “Everybody” runs Thursday, Sept. 24 through Saturday, Sept. 26 and Wednesday, Sept. 30 through Friday Oct. 2. All shows start at 7:30 p.m. at CSULB’s University Theatre near the intersection of E. Seventh St. and E. Campus Dr., with the closest parking at lot E8. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-985-5526 or visit CSULB.edu. Run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.