A few days after Julie Fulcher’s mother died, she had a dream that her mother visited her.

“She met me in an airport space,” says Fulcher. “It wasn’t a literal airport, but it gave the feeling of this big, abandoned airport.”

As her mother went on her journey between life and death, Fulcher was fully aware of the airport as a metaphor representing a place of limbo. And when she was asked by the University of Richmond to stage Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play “Everybody,” she knew what she wanted the set to be.

“It takes place in that in-between space, that void between life and death, that moment when you are approached by death,” explains Fulcher of the show, which opens Thursday at the Modlin Center for the Arts. “It’s an allegory, so lots of symbolism, satire and irony done in a very earnest way.”

“Everybody” is a modern day adaptation of the 15th century morality play “Everyman.” In the medieval version, the title character is a stand-in for mankind who learns that when we die and are placed before god, all that matters are a person’s good deeds.

Jacobs-Jenkins’ script focuses more on death’s randomness and the universality of the human condition. After the character Everybody protests their own death, they are allowed to bring a friend along for company. Soon, Everybody learns that no one he spent time with during life will accompany him.

Onstage during the show, some of the actors will take part in a lottery to find out which part they will play for that performance. Among other actors, the show will feature Catherine Shaffner, Dorothy Holland and Zakiyyah Jackson.

Holland, who plays Death in the show, says “Everybody” is “raucously funny.”

“It’s not dark at all. In fact, it’s the opposite: it’s light. It’s an experience that’s hard to put into words,” Holland says. “This is a death that you would be very happy to spend 90 minutes with.”

Holland says that she’s delighted to portray death personified, and that this version is as “if death were just a worker in an office.”

“I’m old enough to be asked by Julie if I would play Death, so I thought absolutely I would take on this role,” Holland says. “I’m getting much more and more familiar with death, both concepts and actuality, with every passing year and day.”

Holland lauds Jacobs-Jenkins’ script.

“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a fabulous wordsmith, but he’s also an idea maker. He’s conceptual. His plays are so smart,” Holland says. The play “looks at death with such a fun, loving, insightful view and approach. It will surprise you. It’s unusual, fun storytelling. You’ll have a fabulous theater experience.”

Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the premiere playwrights of our time; both “Everybody” and his play “Gloria,” which concerns a workplace shooting, were Pulitzer finalists. In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Fellow, and he won the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays “Appropriate” and “An Octoroon.” He previously gave a talk at the University of Richmond in 2019.

Set designer Emmy Weldon says she was a “little bit terrified” when she first read the script for “Everybody.”

“It is all about questioning our existence and exploring these existential questions,” Weldon says. “This text asks so much of us, questions we don’t have the answers to.”

For the set, Weldon says she began looking at common architecture in airports as well as sacred geometry and patterns in nature, such as the golden ratio.

“I feel like I was able to hit right in the middle of complexity and simplicity,” Weldon says. “It is big, there is some grandeur there, but it’s also clean and simple.”

Given its existential nature, Davis says “Everybody” is a show that everyone can relate to.

“It’s funny, it’s quirky, it’s poignant and it will make you think,” Davis says. “Inevitably, [death] is going to happen for all of us, and no matter what walk of life of where we’re coming from or what we’re struggling with, we will all have this experience.”

University of Richmond’s “Everybody” plays April 18-21 at the Modlin Center for the Arts, 453 Westhampton Way, 23173. For more information visit modlin.richmond.edu.