The dramatic conceit behind this show is full of promise. Jamie and Cathy’s five years relationship, which included marriage, has come to an end. We get two different perspectives; Jamie takes up from when the couple first get together and winds forward until the crash whilst Cathy takes up from the heartbreak at the end of the relationship and winds back to the first giving of flowers

This way of playing with time can work very poignantly. Harold Pinter used the reversal of time to great effect in his classic play Betrayal where the play starts at the end of an affair and ends with the first kiss. That first kiss is one of those heart stopping moments.

THE LAST FIVE  YEARS didn’t grab me as much as I thought it might.  It certainly had nothing to do with the two talented performers who gave their all. Christian Charisiou played the rather selfish, ego driven writer Jamie. Elise McCann played the soft natured aspiring actress Cathy.  

Their individual journeys were well charted. Daryl Wallis provided good piano accompaniment from his upstairs vantage point.  Elsie Edgerton-Till helmed the production with too light a touch.

I found that the way the play was structured with its continuous cycle of songs without any spoken dialogue between the two characters was too cold a way of telling the story of a deeply felt romance.

So sorry folks, my response to this show was very lukewarm.

THE LAST FIVE YEARS, written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, is playing the Ensemble Theatre until the 27th April, 2019