Everyman

Carol Ann Duffy's translation of Everyman was very radical.  Her modern twist to this medieval script was unbelievable in language and production.  The visuals were truly amazing and engaging, while the language emphasized the modern importance and timelessness of the themes written about centuries ago. 

Coming into this play, I really did not know what to expect.  The script that we read in class was so bare and abstract that it was really hard to picture how this play could be put on the stage.  Combine that with the fact that at the time I had never seen a true theatrical production, I was completely baffled at what I was going to see.  Then, when the first part of the play is a lady sweeping the stage, I was just about ready to throw in the towel, but I stuck it out.  This play did not disappoint. 

It is quite the understatement to say that there are significant cuts or re-arrangements of the text in the production.  The ENTIRE script was modernized.  Everyman was being thrown a huge birthday bash with his friends, full of alcohol and drugs.  Not known until later in the play but visualized very early, Everyman falls from the roof while intoxicated and perishes.  The onstage theatrics were unbelievable.  From the time the audience sees Everyman falling in slow motion into the huge pit on the stage, to the loud music and over-the-top silver statues, the production was very visually appealing.  The use of the LED screen and the ability to see behind the LED screen with different lighting was amazing!  Nothing about this play felt as if it was old. 

The language in this modernization put a huge emphasis on the fact that Everyman could not take his material possessions, which he loved most, into his reckoning with God.  The material possessions took an entire scene of the play for itself, full of credit cards and shiny statues in front of golden graphics on the LED screen.  I think Carol Ann Duffy was trying to emphasize this above all in the play.  Material possession is a huge theme in today's society, and I think Duffy wanted to challenge that thinking and prioritization with this play.  Other language modifications included references to modern day pop songs, with one of the characters saying they were "all about that base, bout that base, no treble." I can't remember the use of the F-word in the medieval version of this script either, so I will have to say she added that in there too. 

My favorite modernization of the play was her use of Death.  I loved the ending of the play when death pointed out to the crowd and said "eenie meenie miney moe."  I thought that tied the entire thing together and allowed her to make the point that Everyman represented every single person in the room.  This play applies to us, and we should evaluate it seriously, and I think her use of the character Death tied in that fact. 

I enjoyed Everyman very much.