Theatre and Dance

All this and more is explored in The Last Five Years, a rarely performed but fascinating musical by the Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.

This funny yet heartbreaking show is the latest offering from Brilliant Productions, the Hertfordshire based independent theatre company, who have just obtained the rights to perform it professionally.

The musical explores the five year relationship between a couple who are both literally and metaphorically moving in different directions.

Twist

Jamie is a successful writer and Cathy is a struggling actress, but the twist is in the telling of the story.

Brilliant’s Artistic Director Bobbie Chatt, who is also playing Cathy in the show, told us more:

“Jamie the writer [played by Nadeem Crowe – Zanna Don’t] tells the story from the day they met, chronologically to their break up” explained Bobbie, “while Cathy, the actress, tells it backwards from the splitting up to the day they met, so they are literally going in opposition to each other.

“They [and their stories] meet at only one point, on their wedding day.”

Having just two main characters and needing to represent the passing of time could give a director all sorts of problems, but as Bobbie revealed, their director, Matt Fowler has created a production that is both believable and easy to follow.

“It can be presented in two ways” said Bobbie.

“You can do it so that the two characters never meet and pretend that the other person isn’t there, then have them only meet on their wedding day. But our director has a different approach.

“He feels that if you never see them together, then you never believe them as a couple, so you don’t feel anything for them when they break up. So in our show, we are always in each other’s scenes.

“And also, the time scale is shown on the back wall so the audience knows where they are.”

Struggling

While, the stories move in opposite directions, it soon becomes clear that this is the way that the relationship is going too.

“When they [Cathy and Jamie] met they were both full of promise” explained Bobbie.

“Cathy is an actress but it’s a difficult career. There are so many others doing it and much of whether you get a part or not depends on what they are looking for that day. So she struggles – a summer season in Ohio is all she ever really manages.

“Meanwhile, writer Jamie gets published early on and is lauded as a writer. But Cathy is still struggling and not working.

“He encourages her but the more he encourages her the more she feels she’s failing him” continued Bobbie.

“But he also sometimes feels that he has to play down his achievements and says things like, “I’ll not fail because you can’t win”, so there is a real lack of communication between them.”

The show won numerous awards in America but is very rarely done professionally in the UK.

Genius

Bobbie explained why she was attracted to putting it on:

“I’d been wanting to do it for ages” she said.

“It’s musically fantastic, I think that James Robert Brown is a musical genius and when I first heard it I loved the music and I really related to the character.

“I’ve played things like Peppermint Patti in Snoopy and Sal in Me and My Girl, lots of happy clappy musicals, but this is more like a soap. We’ve all had emotional ups and downs and I just really wanted to play it.”

It also fits in with what Brilliant Productions try to do:

“I don’t have aims for the company in terms of a journey” she explained, “I just want to produce things that don’t get produced a lot.

“There are loads of companies out there doing things like The King and I and Carousel that costs thousands to put on, and so we don’t need someone else wanting to produce those. I want to produce theatre that I like, that isn’t done very often.”

The Last 5 Years features Bobbie Chatt (Les Miserables) and Nadeem Crowe (Zanna Dont!). It is directed by Matt Fowler with musical direction by Simon Beck, currently the MD of 'Talent' at the Menier Chocolate Factory and also the National Tour of The Rocky Horror Show.

You can see it at the Pump House Theatre, Local Board Road, Watford, WD17 2JP from 26-28 November 2009.

Performances are at 8.00pm with a Saturday Matinee at 5.00pm.