Jermyn Street Theatre to Stage UK Premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody

Jermyn Street Theatre in London will stage the UK premiere of Everybody, a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, according to WhatsOnStage. Previews begin on 28 January, and the production opens on 3 February. A UK premiere is the first staging of a play in this country.

The play is a modern retelling of Everyman, a 15th-century morality play. Those were stage pieces that taught a lesson through characters who stood for ideas, such as Death, Strength or Good Deeds. Jacobs-Jenkins is a Pulitzer Prize winner, the American prize for drama.

The production will be directed by Atri Banerjee, who was formerly artistic lead of the Gate Theatre in London. He takes charge of a staging that needs the theatre's room to be rearranged.

Jermyn Street's 70-seat auditorium is being reconfigured for an in-the-round staging. In the round means the stage sits in the middle of the room and the audience sits on every side. This is the first time the theatre has made that change since its 2015 production of Lesere.

The casting is unusual too. The principal roles are assigned by lottery each night, so an actor may play a different part from one performance to the next. To make that possible, every cast member learns the entire script, ready to step into another role at short notice.

For audiences, that means the cast list printed in advance may not match the one on stage. The company has built the show around that uncertainty, and the room is small enough that most seats will be close to the action.

Jermyn Street Theatre is a small venue in St James's, central London. Its productions are usually booked by people who want a close view of the work, and this one asks for a different kind of attention. Tickets and the full run dates are available from the theatre's box office.