Every Brilliant Thing extends its run @sohoplace for four weeks and welcomes actress Minnie Driver.
The West End premiere of Every Brilliant Thing, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe and directed by Jeremy Herrin and Duncan Macmillan will play @sohoplace theatre from 1 August – 8 November 2025.
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 five 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), Sue Perkins (The Great British Bake Off, BBC; Just a Minute, BBC Radio 4) and Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting; The Riches).
Performance schedule for Every Brilliant Thing
Lenny Henry: 1 August – 30 August | 29 September – 8 October
Jonny Donahoe: 13 August – 1 September | 9 October – 11 October
Ambika Mod: 2 September – 26 September
Sue Perkins: 4 September – 27 September
Minnie Driver: 13 October – 8 November
What is Every Brilliant Thing About?
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.
More information about the cast of Every Brilliant Thing
Who is Lenny Henry?
Lenny Henry has 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.
Who is 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.
Who is Ambika Mod?
Ambika Mod is an 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.
Who is 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.
Who is Minnie Driver?
Minnie Driver first captured the attention of audiences and critics alike in 1995 with her critically acclaimed performance in Circle of Friends, starring opposite Chris O’Donnell. She went on to earn Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations, both in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Good Will Hunting, directed by Gus Van Sant. In 1998 she was honored with ShoWest’s prestigious Female Star of Tomorrow for her work.
Minnie will next be seen in Netflix’ series Run Away which will air in November 2025 as well as in the fifth season of the hit series Emily in Paris coming out later in 2025. She was last seen starring as Elizabeth I in season 2 of The Serpent Queen on Starz. Other recent credits include Chevalier, Rosaline, Amazon’s Modern Love, and Cinderella. She led the hit ABC comedy Speechless for three seasons and earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for The Riches. She also had a fan-favorite recurring role as Lorraine Finster on Will & Grace.
On the big screen, Minnie most recently starred in The Assessment, an official TIFF selection, opposite Elizabeth Olsen and Alicia Vikander as well as in Uproar, and Millers in Marriage.
Minnie hosts the award-nominated iHeart podcast Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver, now in its third season. Her memoir Managing Expectations was published in 2022 to critical praise. She is a passionate advocate for environmental, and animal causes and divides her time between LA and London.
Tickets to Every Brilliant Thing
Additional information
Booking until
1 August – 8 November 2025
Show Times
Mon-Sat 7.30pm (except Fri 6pm & 8.30pm)
Thurs & Sat 2.30pm
Running Time
75 minutes, no interval
Theatre
@sohoplace
Age Recommendation
12+
Access Performances
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)
