The Last Five Years at Reading Rep – review

Jason Robert Brown wrote the book and the score for this extraordinarily original masterpiece, a musical charting the ups and downs of a relationship. It has a deceptively simple premise – the narratives of the two protagonists are played out in different directions from the start. Guy Woolf’s arc as Jamie progresses forwards, from the excitement and exuberance of his new relationship. Martha Kirby’s Cathy, meanwhile, goes backwards, beginning with the ultimate breakdown of the romance that began with such high hopes five years earlier.

So how does this work on stage? In director Hal Chambers’ production, audience concentration is rewarded from the off, as Jamie leaps enthusiastically, almost aggressively, around Ethan Cheek’s deceptively simple set, rejoicing in his success in his new love affair  – and as a newly published writer. This contrasts almost shockingly with Cathy’s distress and disappointment at the apparently final breakup. It’s a device that certainly makes audience members lean forward attentively to keep up and to catch the nuances, the clues to what happens next/previously.

The musical numbers are a particular delight, thanks to the terrific onstage band of four (so outnumbering the actors two to one): Ellie Verkerk-Hughes on piano; Rebecca Demmer on cello; Wills Mercado on guitar; and Angus Tikka on bass guitar. All four are drawn into the action towards the end and seem to relish the chance to move and to interact.

The intimate size of the theatre is especially effective here, intensifying the emotional impact of every scene. This intimacy is actually emphasised by the central platform and screen behind it, with the musicians arranged around it for most of the action, until they are drawn into it towards the end.

It is thanks to Cheek and to Chan’s lighting that the deceivingly basic set is nuanced to reflect mood, as the walls change colour from shades of primrose to blue, to mauve to grey as the story of the five years unfolds in both directions.

Jamie is a confident narcissist, a successful writer with a book deal that ensures him plenty of the public attention we see him relishing; while Cathy is less self-assured, more sensitive, her career as an actress threatened by her uncertainty and perhaps by standing in his shadow. Do they prove the yin and yang of a successful marriage? That is not necessarily Jason Robert Brown’s intention to share. But he does provide the poignant beauty of Jamie’s marriage proposal and Cathy’s acceptance on a day out in the country; a wedding scene complete with her transformation onstage into a bride; and a night in bed under the duvet. Is this the actual climax of the show, where the two trajectories meet?

This multi-layered musical drama will also tour to Cirencester’s Barn Theatre and the Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal Bath and I urge you to catch it if you can.