Everyman

One of the oldest English dramas (hailing from the 15th century), Everyman has been adapted by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy for this National Theatre production, recorded in hi-def video as part of the NT Live series and presented in cinemas nationally by Sharmill Films. It’s a remarkable piece of theatre that manages to be both contemporary and timeless – a morality play that has much to say about the hollowness of consumer culture and the ultimate pointlessness of accumulating material wealth when, as we all know, you can’t take it with you.

Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers a mesmerising performance as the title character, who spends most of the play running away from Death – amusingly personified by Dermot Crowley as a wisecracking Irishman in a beanie. It’s a journey that forces him to reassess all his assumptions about what was important in life, to confront his attitudes to family and friends, to face the hard truth about how far he’s veered away from his childhood ideals. Mr Ejiofor performs all this with absolute conviction, as the various layers protecting his innermost self are peeled away one by one. Doubling in the roles of God and Good Deeds, Kate Duchene made us weep for the short-sightedness of human beings as well delivering plenty of sardonic laughs.

Despite the age of the source material, this production is one that everyone should be able to relate to, with a highly proficient cast, a terrific script by Ms Duffy and effective direction by Rufus Norris and movement by Javier De Frutos. The latter is particularly noteworthy for the opening scene, in which Everyman’s friends throw him a birthday party – a remarkable extended piece of stylised choreography which nevertheless came across as entirely spontaneous.

Alex Paige

Visit www.sharmillfilms.com.au for details of participating cinemas showing the film.

Photographer: Richard Hubert Smith