The LastFive Years
EBM HUMPHREYS on the intricacies of a new play
Romance, especially failed romance, is a universal story, but the form of The Last Five Years is unusual and interesting. These literally star-crossed lovers are portrayed travelling in opposite directions through time. An aspiring performer, Cathy, tells her story from the end backwards while a newly successful writer, Jamie, tells his version from the beginning. They join mid-show as their stories cross at a single point in time.
The decision to be formally inventive makes sense when offering a boy-meets-girl, and it works well to convey the unexpected when we finally get to the root of the tensions from both sides. On this point the form absolutely pays off. I couldn’t take my eyes off the lovers, because of their charm yes, but just as much because of my intense curiosity.
And just as equally importantly, the songs were enjoyable in their own right: my companion followed the tricky plot less than me, but was of the firm opinion that it doesn’t matter if the music is great, which it was. The live musicians were a joy and even became amusingly drawn into the action. The two singers were completely game, revealing no opening-night nerves, and gave their all for a relatively small audience. Creating chemistry, when you are rarely allowed to be together on stage and are singing about events years apart, is no mean feat. Aided by their crucial central meeting, it was passionate singing that fleshed out a deftly stripped-back drama and convinced us they were in love.
But I’m going to be honest and say I’m not sure I could have figured out what was going on without being told. Even supported by simple, clever staging and props, I still felt some of the songs, especially Jamie’s opener and Cathy’s closer, needed to be more obvious to communicate this ambitious twist. I felt I was working to make Jamie’s first song about their new romance.
Yet romance is the beginning and end of this story,via the pitfalls of creative ambition, success and struggle. It hurt to watch these two find in one another everything they ever wanted, while simultaneously losing one another irretrievably – twice over! Waiting for confirmation that you haven’t got it all wrong postpones your emotions while they intensify. As the young man behind me put it “I’m wrecked.”
The Last Five Years, A musical by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Hugo Trebels, was performed at The Stables Theatre 17-21 September 2024
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