The Last Five Years – Southwark Playhouse, London (last chance to see)

Review of The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse. The premise is clever, but perhaps a bit too clever for its own good. But none of that matters because there was a REAL AUDIENCE!

Creative Covid Measures from the Southwark Playhouse

Now this was exciting. It was not just a theatre outing with more than one person performing (two actors plus four musicians). It was also a new way of managing social distancing for the audience. To stage The Last Five Years, the Southwark Playhouse has definitely removed seats to allow sufficient space between rows. This was the first time though that I have seen Perspex screens between seats: no distancing within each row required! Even though there was plastic between us, it was a novel but nice experience sitting so close to strangers again. I enjoyed looking across the stage and seeing full rows of little faces instead of household bubbles. It made it feel more like a shared experience again. Funny how little it takes to make me happy these days (Strangers near me! Yay!).

The Last Five Years – What’s it All About?

In terms of the show itself, I would say it is a little more premise than substance. Or at least so much premise that it’s hard to relax into the story. The Last Five Years follows a young New York couple, Jamie and Cathy, as they fall in and out of love over five years. The hook is that Jamie is experiencing the story from beginning to end. Cathy on the other hand starts at the end and works back to the initial ‘meet cute’. And this is a musical, so it’s all done through song. Their story isn’t particularly remarkable – they are very much in love to begin with but drift apart as they find themselves at different points in their lives. They struggle with different things and put different demands on their needs in the relationship.

But the fact that the two sides of the story are moving in different directions was a distraction for me. I found myself constantly gauging whether this was the point where they met in the middle, or how far through the five years they were in either direction. On the other hand what it did do was emphasise a very existential feeling that, even when you’re in a relationship, you are still alone and other people are unknowable. If Sartre had a favourite musical maybe this would have been it? (Unlikely, would have been something bleaker and probably with a prostitute.)

A Great Production from the Southwark Playhouse

This production, directed by Jonathan O’Boyle and starring Oli Higginson and Molly Lynch, was on at the Southwark Playhouse before lockdown. So it was fortunate that it was able to be reopened as a socially-distanced affair as their first post-lockdown show. Particularly fortunate as this must be a bit of a hard musical to recruit for. The actors the actors need to be able to sing, play the piano, have good energy as a couple and enough charisma to pull off a two-hander.

Higginson and Lynch do a good job. My theatre-going partner and I were divided as to who we thought was the stronger of the two, which I think is the sign of a well-balanced pairing. I thought that Lynch was a great singer and the stronger at the piano, while Higginson was felt to perhaps have the lead on charisma. Either way they played their parts well, one moving from angry and jaded to sweet and excited, and the other travelling in the opposite direction. Not being able to play off the energy of your on-stage partner must be a tricky thing to adjust to.

Final Thoughts

If you get the chance, all things considered I would say do get along to see The Last Five Years at the Southwark Playhouse. There are a couple of really funny numbers, some great musicianship, and it’s unlike anything else currently on in London. Will this become my favourite musical? Maybe not. But did I enjoy sharing this experience with a roomful of strangers and seeing something new and different? Absolutely.

Salterton Arts Review’s Rating: 3.5/5

The Last Five Years until 14 November 2020