Meaning Reconstruction in Every Brilliant Thing in the Light of Grief and Bereavement Theories

This paper analyses Every Brilliant Thing (2013) by the contemporary British playwright Duncan

Macmillan with regard to grief and bereavement theories. The main focus here is the meaning

reconstruction during grief and bereavement period in the light of the ideas of psychiatrists such

as Sigmund Freud, William Worden, Dennis Klass and Robert A. Neimeyer. The study examines,

on the one hand, the loss of meaning, existential questioning and suicidal depression of the chief

character in the play whose mother commits suicide, on the other, reconstruction of meaning

and self in bereavement period through interactive stand-up comedy. Focusing on the latest

developments in clinical studies about meaning reconstruction and their successful outcomes in

grief and bereavement period after a tragic loss through expressive arts, the paper discusses if

theatre, an expressive art, can be used as a laboratory or a clinic in solving contemporary social

and individual problems. In this sense, Macmillan’s play provides much information about new

trends of the contemporary theatre. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the role of theatre

in the healing process of diseases that are related to modern life in relation to social

responsibility that is a common tendency of contemporary theatre.

Keywords: Grief, Bereavement, Theatre, Duncan Macmillan, Meaning