Everybody (play)

The story is kept largely the same as Everyman with a few exceptions. Fellowship, Kindred, Goods, Discretion, Five Wits, and Knowledge are renamed Friendship, Kinship, Stuff, Mind, Five Senses, and Understanding respectively. Additionally, the scene where Everyman must whip himself for Confession is changed to a scene where they are instructed by the drill sergeant-esque character of Love to strip naked and scream "I have no control". Also instead of Good Deeds following Everyman/Everybody to the grave, in this play that role is filled by Love. The story is also interspersed with pre-recorded voiceover scenes done fully in the dark, depicting four of Everybody's friends comforting them at their deathbed and through a misunderstanding eventually turns into a discussion on racism.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times gave the show a lukewarm review, saying that the concept was interesting and it had value as an acting exercise, but claimed that the show was "saying what is essentially the same thing again and again and again" and that the pre-recorded sections felt like "unnecessary afterthoughts."^[2] Marilyn Stasio of Variety said "Something is inevitably lost in adapting the material for a modern audience that has outgrown its fear and awe of hellfire and damnation. But the story retains some power on a human level, and Jacobs-Jenkins plays up the randomness of death and the universality of the human condition by casting most of the major roles in this show by lottery at each performance."^[3]