Every One by Jo Clifford

This re-imagining of Everyman has all the emotion and drama of the original. It is a beautifully written play about bereavement and loss that unravels through a complex but successful structure. The action opens with the characters addressing the audience directly, which my year 10 students loved when we started reading. The direct address helped them to connect with the characters from the beginning, as if the characters were sharing the story with them.

Clifford writes about ordinary people brilliantly. She writes about the impact of death on everyone. As in some of her other work, the subject of spirituality runs through Every One which marries well with its inspiration, the allegorical mystery play, Everyman. However, Clifford felt the Christian core of the original story was no longer relevant and a straight adaptation would not explore the theme of death and mortality as she intended.