Every Brilliant Thing at @sohoplace is one of those shows that stays with you long after you’ve left the theatre. I went in excited to see Ambika Mod on stage, having loved her performance in Netflix’s One Day, and I walked out feeling like I’d just shared something deeply personal with her.

Before the play even began, Ambika was already in the space, chatting with audience members and handing out slips of paper. I quickly realised this was the set-up for the audience participation I’d heard about – and it instantly made the room feel warm, collaborative, and a little unpredictable.

The story begins with a seven-year-old girl taking her dog, Woofy Goldberg, to be put down. Ambika borrows someone’s jacket to be the dog, and asks another audience member to play the vet. From that moment, the story is alive in the room. That’s how the whole piece works: sometimes it’s a monologue, sometimes she pulls people in to play key roles, sometimes the audience becomes the voice of the list itself. It’s deceptively simple, yet incredibly effective.

The premise sounds heavy – a child whose mother struggles with depression starts writing a list of every brilliant thing in life, as a way to make sense of the darkness. But the show itself is full of joy, humour, and light. Ice cream is number one on the list, naturally, and it grows from there, charting the character’s life and loves. Some moments are poignant, others hilarious, and many carry a playful, improvised energy, even though the overall structure is tightly scripted.

Ambika is magnetic. She has the room in the palm of her hand from the outset – warm, funny, and utterly believable. There were times I genuinely forgot I was watching an actor performing a script, so natural was the storytelling. Her ease with audience interaction, her generosity, and her ability to switch from lightness to vulnerability in a heartbeat are extraordinary.

Yes, it’s a play about depression, but it’s also a play about resilience, connection, and love. There’s a section about the Werther effect – the troubling way media coverage can be complicit in a rise in suicides after high-profile cases – another about avoidance and denial, but none of it feels clinical or distant. It’s human, relatable, and surprisingly uplifting. At one point, Ambika even tells the audience directly: if you’re ever thinking about suicide, don’t – things do get better. That message lands hard, surrounded as it is by so much laughter and life.

The music threaded through the show adds another layer. Jazz records, piano-singalongs, little details that ground the character and make her world feel specific and real. And when the love story emerges – including the delightful awkwardness of roping an audience member in as the partner – it’s both funny and genuinely moving.

What struck me most was how universal it all felt. Whether or not you’d been given a slip of paper, you were part of the experience. At times the whole audience moved as one, swept up in the brilliance of it all.

Ambika is one of five performers taking on Every Brilliant Thing during its run at @sohoplace, and I am looking forward to returning to see it with another actor. With Ambika, Lenny Henry, Sue Perkins, Minnie Driver, and the show’s co-creator Jonny Donahoe taking on the role, audiences are spoilt for choice. The piece is ingenious in its design, but it needs a performer who can carry the room with honesty, humour, and vulnerability. Ambika Mod does all of that and more.

This isn’t a heavy night at the theatre. It’s a joyful one, and a reminder that even in the darkest times, there are still so many brilliant things worth sticking around for.

Every Brilliant Thing is running at @sohoplace until 8th November. 

To book tickets and to see when each performer is playing, visit everybrilliantthing.com

Words by Nick Barr

Photography Danny With A Camera