The Last Five Years – Southwark Playhouse

Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

The Last Five Years continues at the Southwark Playhouse, London until 28 March 2020.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

If ever proof was needed that the path of true love does indeed never run smooth, here it is, laid bare in this emotional and innovative rollercoaster of a musical. Jason Robert Brown’s musical, here directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, has found its perfect home with the Southwark Playhouse, the intimate seating arrangement contributing to the atmosphere, which at times is electric.

Add in the innovative visual distraction of a beautiful black piano on a constantly revolving stage and the impressively intense performances of Molly Lynch as Cathy and Oli Higginson as Jamie and the 90 minutes absolutely flies by. Any longer and the audience’s collective heartstrings, as good as this is, could be stretched to breaking point. There is only so much personal pain and joy you can stand in one evening and you know from the start that dissecting any five-year relationship isn’t going to be all wine and roses.

Love’s young dream doesn’t last long here, the story of the creative couple’s relationship being effectively told back to front, inside out and with all its highs and lows and ultimate failure. Every early song impresses as do the constantly strong vocal and physical performances of Lynch and Higginson, but the ‘hairs on the back of the neck’ test isn’t really passed until Jamie and Cathy sing ‘The Next Ten Minutes’ and the emotional intensity goes up several notches. This is the moment when you sense the whole audience becoming immersed as one in their creative and emotional struggle to make things work.

Petals start falling down on the piano and you know that it’s vey likely that tears will soon follow suit.

While Jamie is cutting out a career as a successful author, Cathy is standing in an audition line, number 242 on her dress and 241 thinner and younger women ahead of her in the queue. It’s a recipe for domestic tension and so it proves, he’s keen to network at publishing parties and she needs more domestic commitment. “I’ll not lose so you can win,” he barks at her.

It’s all quite emotionally exhausting but ultimately a very rewarding watch. Filing out at the end, your eyes can’t help but be drawn to the couple’s ring, abandoned on the piano among the scattered petals. Five years then and an awful lot more tears, this is an almost flawless musical dissection of the mutual destruction and devotion of a doomed relationship by two highly impressive performers.

Derek Smith