Is everything in life due to random chance or does everything really happen for a reason?

When it’s your time to leave this life, what do you hope to bring with you to the grave?

These are just a few of the introspective questions tackled in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play Everybody, on stage at the Arthur Miller Theatre through April 9. The show is adapted from the play Everyman, which was first printed by an unknown playwright in 1530.

This semi-interactive show begins before you even enter the theater.

Upon arrival, each audience member is asked to grab a numbered ping pong ball from a vintage briefcase. There are similar briefcases placed along the edge of the stage and you get to pick which one you want to deposit your ball into. You are greeted by two actors in vintage usher costumes (Clara Dossetter and Maya McEntyre) who instruct you on what to do with your ball. There is also a pre-show performance by a band dressed in skeleton onesies. They affectionately call themselves Bones Bones Bones and are made up of Ryland Gigante on the bass, Henry Conner with percussions, Mackenzie Holley’s vocals, and Atticus Olivet working both the keyboard and acoustic guitar. 

Before the show officially “starts,” the ushers tell the audience that the ping pong balls dictate what actors play what tracks. Every actor in the show has learned two different roles. If they pick out an even number, they play track A, if they pick out an even number they play track B.

Then the ushers jump on the stage and become God.

God is upset with the way humankind is behaving. They don’t appreciate the gifts they have been given and God feels they are mocking them. A ping-pong ball is picked and an actor, Rohan Maletira, is chosen to play Death. God tells Death that Everybody must suffer for their behavior and must reach the end of their life. Another ping-pong ball is drawn to determine who gets to play Everybody—who is bound to die by the end of the play. 

Andrew Otchere is chosen to play Everybody and the rest of the roles are decided by the picking of the balls.

We are asked if we believe that this show is truly random, that all these actors really did learn multiple roles, and the balls do dictate the performances. It can show us how unpredictable life is, and that Death does not discriminate on who goes next. On the flip side, we are challenged if we really believe in the lottery, or if we secretly think it is all planned out beforehand without us having any say in how it happens. It is one of the great questions of life, is it not?

Everybody is told by Death that they have to make this presentation to God about their life and that there is no going back once they do so. Everybody asks if they can bring someone with them so they don’t go through this alone. Death says yes, but only if you can convince them to come. Everybody tries to convince Friendship, Kinship, Cousin, and Stuff to come with them but is rejected over and over again. Everybody is called selfish for wanting others to make that sacrifice and a jerk for claiming to be the only one with this problem and for thinking everyone should blindly support them.

But Love feels left out because they were not considered and confronts Everybody who asks what they can do to make it up to them—because Everybody wants Love until the very end. Love tells Everybody that they need to be humiliated and humbled. Everybody has to strip down to their boxers, run in circles, and repeat over and over again that they are not worthy, their body is just meat, and they surrender. Love deems it is enough; they will go with Everybody to their grave. 

The band members of Bones Bones Bones also say they will come with Everybody and Love but now they are Beauty, Strength, Senses, and Mind. Death reappears, shocked by how many people Everybody has convinced to come with them. But once the hole in the ground is revealed, Beauty fades away, Strength wavers, Mind leaves, and Senses gets lost. Everybody just has Love in the end, and they go into the ground together.

This show is poignant, thought-provoking, and a reality check. It hits you in the face with life’s hardest questions and makes you reflect on what is most important. Otchere is especially fantastic as Everybody, giving a stellar performance that is both vulnerable and desperate. The ensemble is sharp and playful, and the show flows seamlessly.

Everybody is the perfect example of art imitating life. Or…does life imitate art? That’s your decision to make.

Marley Boone is a theatre professional that has been in the industry since 2015. While living in Philadelphia, she wrote theater reviews for DC Metro Arts.

UMSTD's “Everybody” runs from March 30 to April 9 at the Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Ave, Ann Arbor. More information and tickets can be found here.