Shannon Turner (Everybody) and Mackenzie Lindsay (Stuff) in the play Everybody at the St Anne's Theatre tin Hilton this week.
Image: Photo credits: Paul Henman
St Anne's College is presenting the acclaimed play Everybody by contemporary American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins this week.
What does it mean to live well? What do we carry with us when everything else falls away? And if Death called on you today, would you be ready?
These timeless questions lie at the heart of the play. Inspired by the medieval morality play Everyman, Everybody transforms a 16th-century allegory into a striking, urgent, and unexpectedly humorous theatrical experience for modern audiences.
The original Everyman told the story of a character summoned by Death and forced to account for their life. In a powerful theatrical twist, Jacobs-Jenkins reinvents this journey for our own era. In a fast-paced, hyperconnected, globalised world driven by productivity, consumerism, and digital identity, the play asks us to pause. It challenges us to consider what has lasting value beyond status, possessions, and social media personas. In a time marked by global uncertainty, climate anxiety, political division, war and widening inequality, Everybody gently but firmly asks: What endures? Who stands beside us when everything else is stripped away?
Kinship (Mackenzie Goeller), Everybody (Shannon Turner) and Cousin (Alec Buchan) in a scene from Everybody.
Image: Paul Henman
The 16th-century message of Everyman remains startlingly relevant. The original morality play urged audiences to reflect on their lives before it was too late which is an invitation that feels even more urgent in our 21st-century global world. Everybody reminds us that wealth, beauty, friendship, and even knowledge may falter, but our actions and choices prevail. Everybody speaks in a modern voice that is ironic, self-aware, and deeply human; both philosophical and accessible, playful and profound.
Everybody is not a sombre meditation on death; it is a vibrant, surprising exploration of what it means to live. It invites laughter, recognition, and introspection. It holds a mirror to humanity and asks us who we are.
The play is directed by Lynn Chemaly with technical direction by Tebogo Makitla and features girls from the school. It is being performed on March 23 and 24 at 7pm. Tickets R70. Enquiries to 033 343 6100 or lchemaly@stannes.co.za