Lauren Charlton-Mathews: Solo renditions of Stars And The Moon and The Flagmaker, 1775 in Songs For A New World. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen
WHEN Songs For A New World opened at the WPA Theatre in New York, Jason Robert Brown and his director, Daisy Prince, described it as “neither musical play nor revue, but a very theatrical song cycle”.
It becomes even more so in the hands of Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ musical director and producer Matthew Peter Clare and his co-director and co-stage designer, Mikhail Lim, as the York company follows up last week’s collaboration with Wharfemede Productions in another Brown work, The Last Five Years.
The traverse setting for that fractious two-hander makes way for an end-on design that makes full use of the St Margaret’s Church bare side wall, framed with netting and white sheets and a screen for Kelly Ann Bolland’s all-important scenic design.
Adam Price and Natalie Walker
The video footage, full of politicians promising peace, countered by war and destruction, racist hatred and financial meltdowns up to the present-day conflicts, serves as a modern update on the Pathé News reels so evocative of World War times, setting the tone for each song within the show’s themes of hope, faith, love and loss.
Almost two decades have passed since the Off Broadway premiere, and could anyone argue that the world has not worsened in that time? More war. More division in society and wealth. More mendacity in power. More moves to the right wing. More rules, CCTV and form-filling. Too much heat, and not only in the alarming change in climate.
The need for a “new world” – one of hope and love, faith in each other as much as in the One above, and loss of hubris and hunger alike – has never been greater.
Mikhail Lim: Co-director, co-stage designer, co-costume designer and vocalist
As Clare and Lim put it in their programme note: “Our reimagining of Songs For A New World addresses the ever-growing uncertainty and tension found within today’s political climate. The aim is to create a production that resonates deeply with an audience who are prepared to journey through the complexities of today’s societal landscape.”
Job done, courtesy of their emotionally charged direction; Freya McIntosh’s minimalist but moving choreography; the aforementioned designs; the impact of being in a church building, a place, a cradle, of grace, contemplation and the power of silence…
…Then add the palate of colours in Lim and McIntosh’s modern yet timeless costumes, each in two tones, for contrasts, connection and continuity, with an eye for composition reminiscent of a painting.
Katie Brier: Soloist for Just One Step and Surabaya-Santa
Each costume change, conducted en masse, adds to the visual pleasure, while the movement of wooden boxes throughout the performance is conducted with the significance of a chess move.
Crucially too, Clare and Lim have doubled the cast size to eight, making for more singing partnerships in a multi-ethnic, multi-faceted company, where both individual and ensemble can shine, framed so poetically by McIntosh’s measured choreography.
Responding to Clare’s keyboard-led nine piece band, Ayana Beatrice Poblete, Katie Brier, Reggie Challenger, Lauren Charlton-Mathews, Rachel Higgs, Mikhail Lim, Adam Price and Natalie Walker sing righteously, romantically, roundly well.
Ayana Beatrice Poblete and Reggie Challenger
What of Brown’s songs? More melodic, less Sondheim than The Last Five Years, they hit both heart and soul, with The River Won’t Flow, Charlton-Mathews’ Stars And The Moon, Act I finale The Steam Train, Lim’s King Of The World, Challenger and Price’s Flying Home and the Higgs-fronted Final Transition: The New World all sung particularly passionately and persuasively.
Roll on this new world, and yes, let’s make a song and dance about it, like Jason Robert Brown and Black Sheep Theatre Productions have.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions, Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music,St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ artwork for Songs For A New World
Creative team: Co-director, musical director & producer: Matthew Peter Clare
Co-director: Mikhail Lim Assistant director & choreographer: Freya McIntosh
Cast: Ayana Beatrice Poblete; Katie Brier; Lauren Charlton-Mathews; Reggie Challenger; Rachel Higgs; Mikhail Lim; Adam Price and Natalie Walker.
Band:
Matthew Peter Clare, musical director and keys; Ben Huntley, guitar; Zander Lee, bass; Helen Warry and Elle Weaver, violin; Gregory Bush, viola; Mari MacGregor, violincello; Jude Austin, drums, and Jez Smith, auxiliary percussion.
The bliss before the blister: Chris Mooney’s Jamie and Helen Spencer’s Cathy in their wedding-day clench
THIS is the first of a brace of shows by Tony Award-winning Jason Robert Brown, maker of musical theatre reflecting modern-day America, presented by Matthew Peter Clare’s Black Sheep Theatre Productions.
The first, Brown’s emotionally charged, to-and-fro 2001 two hander The Last Five Years, is being staged this week in collaboration with Wharfemede Productions, the new York company set up by Helen “Bells” Spencer and Nick Sephton.
The second, Brown’s “very theatrical song cycle” from 1995, Songs For A New World, follows next Thursday to Saturday.
In one of those remarkably busy theatre and concert weeks that York loves to serve up, CharlesHutchPress caught the dress rehearsal, from a front-row table in St Margaret’s Church, home to the NCEM, with its desirably clear acoustics and hyper-sensitive sound system.
Bare walls and a stone floor are not a naturally theatrical setting, the venue being set up for concerts as its name would suggest, but singing feels very much at home, from the moment Helen Spencer and Chris Mooney stretch their cords with their vocal warm-ups.
Given its belated York premiere in November 2022 by White Rose Theatre’s cast of director Claire Pulpher and Simon Radford, Brown’s intense, fractious, intricately structured He Said/She Said love story suits a traverse setting, adding to the friction, the electric crackle, of two accounts of a five-year relationship, told on raised platforms – each sparsely equipped with one white seat and a black box – from opposite ends of the stage and time frame.
The background to The Last Few Years is that Brown drew on the trials and tribulations of his own failed marriage to Theresa O’Neill. So much so that she sued him on the grounds of the musical’s story violating non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements within their divorce decree by representing her relationship with Brown too closely.
For Brown, read successful young novelist Jamie Wellerstein, Random House’s rising poster boy. For, well, let’s not say O’Neill, but any struggling actress, read Cathy Hiatt, from Ohio.
Brown’s sung-through musical has the novel structure of Spencer’s Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while Mooney’s Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.
The songs take the form of internal monologues, alongside the occasional phone call, delivered mostly with the other partner having left the stage (for one of multiple costume changes), except for the burst of heart-pumping fireworks of a duet where they meet centre stage, touch for the first time, exchange marriage vows and rings and swap ends to continue on the same trajectory.
This alienating structure, so challenging to actors in how to evoke the bond, tactility and heat of love – the changes in the chemistry, physics and biology of a relationship – emphasises there will be no middle ground in this relationship, no alternative paths. In a storyline travelling in two directions, nothing can stop the crash.
In rehearsal with guest director Susannah Tresilian, Mooney and Spencer worked on breaching that chasm, the black hole, that had to be filled through vocal and facial expression, and sometimes by the other being present on stage, but doing their own thing silently.
The singing is demanding in that way so much of Stephen Sondheim’s repertoire can be, where melody takes a back seat to recitative, (the form of accompanied solo song that mirrors the rhythms and accents of spoken language), whether upbeat in Jamie and Cathy’s courtship songs or in broken-hearted ballads.
Under those tremors and volcanic outpourings, Clare leads his seven-piece from the keyboards, the waves of beautiful and mellifluous arrangements breaking against the rocks of the relationship in song.
The intensity of a two-hander magnifies how the relationship can be interpreted in different ways. In Simon Radford’s hands at Theatre@41, his peacock Jamie was more unreasonable, making you wonder whether these two would ever have lasted five years or whether they were polar opposites never meant to travel in the same direction.
More often, Jamie is portrayed as the one trying everything to save the relationship, to spark up Cathy, in a gentler interpretation of the role. This is where Mooney pitches his Jamie, aware of his foibles, unable to resist temptation as the fame blossoms, deceitful, yes, but regretful too. You can see why this is the well-worn path through this character, not so harsh.
Blessed with bags of stage presence and an ear for the importance of stillness, Spencer maker her Cathy a woman of stronger mettle, even if she has to open the show with her confidence shot, consumed by loneliness and insularity.
What gradually emerges from those broken wings is the butterfly, one who revels in flights of happiness, shows more than a flash of humour and handles the actor’s familiar lot of failed auditions stoically, until the searing pain of rejection delivered in Jamie’s parting letter.
A stark, frank reading of love’s vicissitudes, its sometimes all too brief candle, The Last Five Years makes for a more mature, adult relationship drama than Romeo And Juliet, although sharing its sense of the forlorn, as Brown’s songs and Money and Spencer’s performances draw you in without you taking sides.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions and Wharfemede Productions in The Last Five Years, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, today at 7.45pm. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/wharfemede-productions-ltd.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents: Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, October 24 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office:Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/blacksheeptheatreproductions/.
Helen “Bells” Spencer’s Cathy Hiatt and Chris Mooney’s Jamie Wellerstein in The Last Five Years, opening at the NCEM on Thursday. Picture: Simon Trow
CO-FOUNDERS Helen “Bells” Spencer and Nick Sephton are launching Wharfemede Productions by staging Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years in association with fellow York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions.
The American musical two-hander will be staged at the National Centre for Early Music, York, from Thursday to Saturday this week.
Formed by chief artistic director, musical actress and psychiatrist Helen and chief operating officer, musical actor and former Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company chair Nick, the innovative new company takes its name from their home in Thorp Arch.
After their fruitful involvement in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, not least in fund-raising for the JoRo, their new venture Wharfemede Productions will focus mainly on character-driven musical theatre pieces and use Helen’s expertise to establish a culture of learning and development as part of the rehearsal process.
Wharfemede Productions chief operating officer Nick Sephton and chief artistic director Helen Spencer at the September company launch in the Wharfemede garden
“Having gained a Drama degree from Manchester University and then co-founded and company managed Envision Theatre Company, this is a return to my roots,” says Helen, who has bags of experience as a professional and amateur performer, vocal coach and company manager.
Supporting and organising the company will be Nick’s role. “With decades of logistics, managerial and computing experience, I’m excited to be founding a company that uses these skills, combined with my love for music and theatre,” he says.
For The Last Five Years, Wharfemede and Black Sheep have brought together a formidable core creative team of Helen, as director, and Black Sheep founder and good friend Matthew Clare, as musical director, complemented throughout the rehearsal process by Susannah Tresilian, a professional director and journalist from London, as guest director, and Tom Guest, from Manchester, as vocal coach.
Premiered at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre in 2001 and then produced Off-Broadway in March 2002, The Last Five Years tells the emotive story of two New Yorkers, rising novelist Jamie Wellerstein and struggling actress Cathy Hiatt, who fall in and out of love over the course of five years.
Helen Spencer and Chris Mooney working with guest director Susannah Tresilian, right, in the rehearsal room. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
Using an unconventional structure, American pop-rock musical theatre composer, lyricist and playwright Jason Robert Brown presents the story in reverse from Cathy’s point of view, first revealing the end of their tumultuous relationship.
Meanwhile, Jamie tells the story chronologically from when the couple first met. The pair only cross paths once, in the middle of the show, where they are seen together before they continue on their respective timelines.
Clare’s seven-piece band combines with Helen Spencer’s Cathy and Harrogate teacher Chris Mooney’s Jamie in a to-and-fro evening of frank storytelling and gorgeous music.
“I have loved this play for many years and in fact was cast as Cathy some years ago but unfortunately the show never went ahead,” says Helen. “I’m absolutely delighted to be finally getting the chance to sing all of these fantastic songs. Even better, I get to watch and listen to Chris, who is so unbelievably talented, playing Jamie.
The poster for Black Sheep Theatre Productions and Wharfemede Productions’ collaborative production of The Last Five Years
“Chris and I worked together on Falsettos[Black Sheep Theatre Productions, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, August 2023] and found we had great chemistry and connection on stage.
“Having talked with Matthew about producing The Last Five Years for a while, all the pieces finally aligned. I’m genuinely giddy with excitement! It’s such a cleverly written show, with wonderful music that will be brought to life by Matthew and his band.”
Helen continues: “With it just being a two hander, it’s intense, intimate and a wonderful challenge. There’s nowhere to hide for us as performers but also for the audience as well. I think I’m better known on the York circuit for portraying brash comedy characters, so it will be nice to tackle something very different. I can’t wait to share this phenomenal show with an audience.”
Calling himself “truly a sucker for a sung-through musical”, Chris says: “The Last Five Years has been on the bucket list for a while now, so accepting the opportunity was a no-brainer. The piece itself challenges audiences with songs centred around difficult concepts that we don’t often see in musicals, with no real protagonist to root for.
Guest director Susannah Tresilian, vocal coach Tom Guest, centre, and musical director Matthew Clare in the rehearsal room for The Last Five Years. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
“They simply get to experience the beauty and the challenges that can happen as two people in love grow together. The songs are a real joy to perform, and it’s been an enjoyable challenge to try to best convey Jamie’s perspective in the show. What’s been a real highlight is getting to bear witness to the professional that is Bells Spencer tackling Cathy and truly making the part her own. I can’t wait to open it all up to the audience now!”
Musical director Matthew Clare describes The Last Five Years as a “beautiful show that highlights just how much can be achieved by a cast of two phenomenal individuals”. “In this way, it is the ultimate challenge for a performer – to be perfect, with no room to hide or any escape from the audience’s sight, for the entirety of a show,” he says.
“I’ve loved working with Bells before as both a member of my previous casts (Jekyll & Hyde (2022), Elegies For Angels, Punks, And Raging Queens (2023), Falsettos (2023) and For The Love Of Animation (2023)) and on production teams or as the director, such as for Musicals In The Multiverse (2023).
“Chris is a phenomenal performer that I have worked with on multiple rounds of Jesus Christ Superstar (2019, 2022) and Falsettos (2023).”
Helen “Bells” Spencer and Chris Mooney rehearsing for The Last Five Years. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
Assessing their performing skills, Matthew says: “Bells brings a robust and exciting vision to her projects with the most delightful working attitude. She’s amazing at leading any project; in particular, one like this, which requires an ability that is second to none and a dedication to match.
“Bells and Chris both have that. Their grasp of the characters and the nuances that they’re able to bring to this show will set it apart from almost anything else this year in York. It’s set to be incredible, with some of the best performers York has to offer, as well as seven of the best musicians! A labour of love, bursting with talent and emotion that one no-one should miss out on!”
Guest director Susannah Tresilian adds: “Interesting love stories never follow an obvious path, but the way the stories of Cathy and Jamie intertwine is so unusual that it really does stand out. It’s been huge fun to work with Bells and Chris on their timelines as they navigate who said what when and who is saying what when now!
“Plus, Bells, Tom and I first met when studying Drama at university, and spent many happy years making theatre all across Europe together, and it is pure joy to be able to collaborate again here on this!”
The logo for Helen “Bells” Spencer and Nick Sephton’s new company, Wharfemede Productions
Vocal coach Tom Guest enthuses: “I’ve always loved the beautiful score by Jason Robert Brown. It’s great to sing, with brilliant, emotionally intelligent lyrics. The ingenious structure makes this story of Cathy and Jamie’s marriage even more engaging, and even more heart-breaking.
“The solo songs are nuanced and energetic and are a fantastic showcase for the actors. Then when their two timelines join for the central duet, it’s just delicious! Ah, those harmonies…
“I’m so excited to be able to work with these two talented musical theatre performers, and especially to be doing it alongside my faves from uni days, Bells and Susannah, is going to be perfect!”
The poster for Wharfemede Productions’ production of Little Women, The Broadway Musical next February
Coming next from Wharfemede Productions will be Little Women, The Broadway Musical, based on Louisa May Alcott’s American coming-of-age novel, with book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. Tickets for the February 18 to 22 2025 run at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
In the cast will be Catherine Foster as Meg March; Connie Howcroft as Jo; Rachel Higgs, Beth; Tess Ellis, Amy; Helen “Bells” Spencer, Marmee; Rosy Rowley, Aunt March; Steven Jobson, Lawrie; Nick Sephton, Professor Bhaer; Andrew Roberts, Mr Brooke, and Chris Gibson, Mr Lawrence.
The creative team comprises: Helen “Bells” Spencer, director; Rosy Rowley and Henrietta Linnemann, assistant directors; Matthew Clare, musical director, and Rachel Higgs, choreographer.
Wharfemede Productions in collaboration with Black Sheep Theatre Productions present The Last Five Years, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, October 17 to 19, 7.45pm. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/wharfemede-productions-ltd.
Wharfemede Productions: the top team
Helen “Bells” Spencer
Helen “Bells” Spencer, chief artistic director
HELEN studied Drama at Manchester University and was then company manager of Envision Theatre Company from 2002-2010. She has performed and vocal coached all around the UK and in Europe over the past 20 years.
Highlights include: 2002 & 2004 UK/Italy tours of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! (Woman 2), Little Voice (Little Voice), Manchester Dance House, Audrey in Little Shop Of Horrors, Barley Corn Jack (Beatrice) Manchester and Edinburgh Fringe (Best Actress Award 2002 MIFTAs).
Helen then had a period away from the stage, having qualified as a doctor and also started a family.
Since returning to musical theatre in 2019, her York credits include: We Remember Sondheim (director/performer), Young Frankenstein (Frau Blucher), Falsettos (Dr Charlotte), Musicals In the Multiverse (director/co-creator), Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens (various), Hello, Dolly! (Dolly Levi), The Sound Of Music (Mother Abbess), Wicked Origins (Ursula & Gelinda), Kipps: Half A Sixpence (Mrs Walsingham), For The Love Of Animation (various), Jekyll & Hyde (Lady Beaconsfield), Hooray For Hollywood (various) and Made In Dagenham (Beryl).
Nick Sephton
Nick Sephton, chief operating officer
NICK holds an Engineering Doctorate in Large Scale Complex Systems from the University of York, having won multiple Best Paper awards for his published works. Subsequently worked as software architect at University of York Digital Creativity Lab.
Nick has extensive experience in leadership and event logistics roles, having worked as both a senior technical architect and lead developer. He also has experience in roles such as UK Community Leader for WPN Judge Program, Magic Tournament Floor Rules Manager for WPN Judge Program and chair of Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company.
Having been a keen singer for some time, Nick’s first named role was as the Sergeant of Police in Pirates Of Penzance. Since become a regular in the York theatre scene.
Credits include: Fester Addams (The Addams Family), Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe), Rudolph Reisenweber (Hello Dolly!), Sir Danvers Carew (Jekyll & Hyde), Mr Shalford (Kipps: Half A Sixpence), Captain Corcoran (HMS Pinafore), Eddie O’Grady (Made in Dagenham), Sir Marmaduke (The Sorcerer), Colonel Calverly (Patience), Strephon (Iolanthe) and Escamilio (Cover – Carmen).
When not on stage, Nick is a keen double bass player and enjoys playing board games.
Guests and hosts at the September 14 launch party for Wharfemede Productions
Infinite possibilities, finite world: Emilio Iannucci’s Roland and Carla Harrison-Hodge’s Marianne in Constellations at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Nick Payne’s Constellations, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, written in the stars, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly, 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
White Rose Theatre in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in the tunnel of love until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly; 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
HERE is a brace of award-garlanded boy-meets-girl one-act two-handers, each playing with time and space with all the elan of Alan Ayckbourn’s playful works of this ilk.
First up, Constellations, University of York alumnus Nick Payne’s multiverse play already staged in York this year by Black Treacle Theatre’s Andrew Isherwood and Jess Murray at Theatre@41 in February.
Named as one of the 50 best plays of the 21st century by the London Evening Standard, now it is in the supple hands of Stephen Joseph Theatre artistic director Paul Robinson, whose cast features Emilio Iannucci, an actor whose thrilling combination of mental agility and physical alacrity has delighted York Theatre Royal and Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre audiences alike.
In Payne’s exploration of the myriad paths one love story can take from one meeting, Iannucci plays beekeeper Roland – with more than one sting in the tale – opposite Carla Harrison-Hodge’s scientist Marianne. “The action takes place (sort of) chronologically,” the programme forewarns. “A change of scene indicates a change of universe”.
“Emilio Iannucci and Carla Harrison-Hodge jump from universe to parallel universe with dazzling speed”. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
To avoid any consternation over Constellations, in a nutshell, each scene – the first meeting, the first date and – spoiler alert – the break-up – unfurls in several different ways, as Iannucci and Harrison-Hodge jump from universe to parallel universe with dazzling speed over 70 minutes in a world of What Ifs and endless possibilities, the next leap dependent on the decision each makes.
Comparisons have been made with the films Sliding Doors and Groundhog Day and, more pertinently, with York-born author Kate Atkinson’s novel Life After Life. Sliding Doors keeps offering two possibilities; Groundhog Day replays the same day over and over; Life After Life positsalternative possible lives for Ursula Todd after death after death.
Bolder still, yet shadowed by the finite nature of life, Constellations combines science and art, physics and chemistry, romance and alternative realities, in an otherwise simple love story.
All life is here within these Constellations: happiness and sadness; honey sweetness and ill health; devotion and cheating; certainty and uncertainty; tremors of the heart and traumas of the mind; the everyday and the extraordinary; decisions big and small; questions and more question; connection and disconnection. A day in the life and the life in a day. The roll of the dice; the truth and the lies.
On a breathtaking set by TK Hay of wooden blocks within a geometric carapace of one and a half miles of fibre-optic cable lighting, Iannucci and Harrison-Hodge talk and move equally nimbly, in response to Payne’s text, Robinson’s direction and Jennifer Kay’s movement direction alike. Sign language speaks volumes too.
Like the sky-at-night lighting’s evocation of drawing lines from star to star, the multifarious stories travel up and down lines of humour and heartbreak, light and darkness, exhilaration and loss, warmth and sudden chill, to the point where you care deeply about Roland and Marianne, whatever direction their paths take. What’s more, you ponder what alternative routes your own life could have followed.
As Robinson puts it, Constellations is “deeply human, deeply moving, genuinely tilting the world for you”. In his notes, he challenges anyone not to leave the theatre “just a bit more aware of what a fragile and remarkable thing life is”. Job done, Mr Robinson. Fragile, remarkable, and always better for a trip to the theatre to appreciate that.
Close together and drifting apart: Simon Radford’s Jamie and Claire Pulpher’s Cathy in a montage for The Last Five Years
YORK Stage director Nik Briggs has long wanted to bring Jason Robert Brown’s emotionally charged 2001 American musical The Last Five Years to York, but his ideal couplings to play Cathy and Jamie have never been in York at the same time.
The York premiere instead falls to White Rose Theatre, the city’s newest stage company, in a passion project for director Claire Pulpher and fellow actor Simon Radford, who both name it as their favourite musical.
Brown drew on the trials and tribulations of his own failed marriage to Theresa O’Neill. So much so that she sued him on the grounds of the musical’s story violating non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements within their divorce decree by representing her relationship with Brown too closely.
For Brown, read successful young novelist Jamie Wellerstein, Random House’s rising poster boy. For, well, let’s not say O’Neill, but any struggling actress, read Cathy Hiatt, from Ohio.
Brown’s sung-through musical has the novel structure of Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while, at the other end of the stage, Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.
The songs take the form of internal monologues, alongside the occasional phone call, usually delivered with the other partner having left the stage, save for a duet where they touch for the first time, exchange marriage vows and swap ends to continue on the same trajectory. There is to be no middle ground in this relationship, no alternative paths, unlike in Constellations.
Simon Radford and Claire Pulpher in rehearsal for The Last Five Years
The singing brings to mind the work of Stephen Sondheim, melody playing second fiddle to recitative, (the form of accompanied solo song that mirrors the rhythms and accents of spoken language), whether upbeat when courting or for broken-hearted ballads.
The accompaniment, however, under the musical direction of Jon Atkin, is often beautiful as he leads a six-piece band with the strings to the fore: Marcus Bousfield on violin and Rachel Brown and Lucy McLuckie on sublime cello. Paul McArthur on guitar and Christian Topman provide the electricity.
The balance in the relationship can be played in different ways, more often with Jamie trying everything to save the relationship, to stimulate Cathy, in a gentler interpretation of the role. In song, Radford’s Jamie is intense, hyper, rising to the point of anger and shouting, uncompromising, in your face, over-confident, deceitful too.
Pulpher’s Cathy tunes into a different wavelength, more controlled, one where she experiences flights of happiness, frustration rather than embitterment with failed auditions, but moments of humour too before loss of confidence, insularity and loneliness take over.
Done this way, where Jamie is the one who is unreasonable, you wonder whether these two would ever have lasted five years or whether they were polar opposites never meant to travel in the same direction.
Nevertheless, the structure is engaging; the songs draw you in; the simple set of two chairs and one table at each end is well chosen, complemented by the regular changes of attire that match the two stories in one’s progress.
After the last two years in Covid’s shadow, seeing a new company of established York talents take its first steps in The Last Five Years is another reason to celebrate Theatre@41’s upward curve under chair Alan Park.
Review by Charles Hutchinson
Award-winning TK Hay lights up the SJT with fibre-optic design ‘unlike anything ever seen in a theatre production before’
Only connect: Cast members Carla Harrison-Hodge and Emilio Iannucci on TK Hay’s ground-breaking set design for Constellations. All pictures: Tony Bartholomew
HOTSHOT young designer TK Hay has created a dazzling and innovative set design for the multiverse story world of Nick Payne’s Constellations at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre.
Crowned Best Designer in the Stage Debut Awards 2022, Hay has used over one-and-a-half miles of glowing fibre optic cable to create a web of light that surrounds actors Carla Harrison-Hodge and Emilio Iannucci.
Payne’s play looks at the ‘What Ifs’ that arise from a single meeting, following the crazy paving of the couple’s path through a multitude of possibilities depending on the decisions they make.
Shining light: Designer TK Hay
Hay was inspired by two installation artists to create a set “that is believed to be unlike anything ever seen in a theatre production before”: Chiharu Shiota from Japan, who makes huge and intricate networks of thread and yarn, and Italian “artist of pure light” Carlo Bernardini, who uses fibre optics, prisms and sculptural elements to form laser-like geometric installations.
“What we wanted was a design that responded to the action of the play, so the direction from the start was very visually focused,” says Hay.
“I was thinking about the connection between the two protagonists and how across all these different realities they are somehow managing to connect with one another.
Illuminating: TK Hay’s fibre-optic design for the SJT’s production of Constellations
“I pitched to Paul Robinson, the director, that we took Shiota’s and Bernadini’s work and fused it together – I thought it would look incredible!”
Robinson says: “TK’s design is absolutely remarkable: we’re pushing at not just what this play can do, but also what theatre form can do with what he’s come up with.”
The set design has created its own challenges for SJT’s production manager Denzil Hebditch, and technical manager Tigger Johnson.
Denzil says: “Working with fibre optics in this way wasn’t something we had done before, and we were concerned that we would struggle to achieve TK’s vision, but the results have been pretty spectacular!”
A floor-level view of TK Hay’s design in the Round at the SJT
Simon Radford and Claire Pulpher in rhearsal for White Rose Theatre’s York premiere of The Last Five Years
GIVE a round of applause to actor Simon Radford, who has been travelling back and forth from Edinburgh to rehearse with director and fellow cast member Claire Pulpher for York company White Rose Theatre’s production of The Last Five Years.
One week of crossing and re-crossing the border has been followed by a further week of rehearsals, now in situ in North Yorkshire, but still involving plenty of movement, taking in Our Lady’s Church Hall in Acomb, a day at Ripon Arts Hub, in All Hallowgate, Ripon, followed by two performances there last Thursday and Friday, and a day of rehearsing and filming a promotional video at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.
From tomorrow until Saturday, Simon and Claire will perform Jason Robert Brown’s emotionally charged American musical there with a six-piece band led by musical director John Atkin, who accompanied the duo on piano in Ripon.
Joining Atkin will be Marcus Bousfield on violin; Rachel Brown and Lucy McLuckie on cello; Paul McArthur on guitar and the ubiquitous Christian Topman on bass.
Claire Pulpher: Actress, director and debutant producer
“It’s been pretty intensive in rehearsal, more like a professional process, crammed into a short time,” says Claire, who plays struggling Ohio actress Cathy Hiatt opposite Simon’s rising novelist, Jamie Wellerstein, as Brown charts the path of two lovers over the course of five years of courting and marriage, trials and tribulations.
She is delighted to be working with Simon as they unite for York’s newest theatre company. “We first met when doing Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods with Pick Me Up Theatre at the Grand Opera House in 2014,” recalls Claire. “The Last Five Years is my favourite show and Simon’s favourite show, and ever since I met Jon Atkin, when he was the musical director for Chess in 2019, we’d wanted to do the show together.
“We thought, ‘let’s make it happen’, and we’ve all put ideas together and it’s somehow happened!”
She first saw the show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008/2009. “But we’ve never seen it done locally, so I set about organising the licence. I’ve directed shows, choreographed shows, but I’ve never produced a show before, so that was a new challenge, me being a novice!
Close together and drifting apart: Simon Radford’s Jamie and Claire Pulpher’s Cathy in a montage of their five-year relationship in Jason Robert Brown’s American musical
“But as a two-person, one-act show, it was affordable, and we didn’t have to panic about getting the rights as no-one else around here was after it,” she says.
“It’s over an hour long, more like 90 minutes with no interval, and when I saw it at the Fringe, it was staged in a pub off the beaten track, and it’s stayed with me as a show ever since.
“The way I saw it presented, the band was on stage and they became immersed in the performance, with each performer singing alone, Cathy to an imaginary Jamie, and vice versa, except in the duets. We’re doing the same.”
In Brown’s theatrical structure, Cathy’s side of the story starts at the end of the relationship; Jamie tells his tale from the beginning, but will they ever meet in the middle in a musical full of laughter, tears and everything in between, played out to a score of upbeat songs and beautiful ballads?
“It’s a rom-com but so relatable as it’s a bit more naturalistic, maybe even uncomfortable,” says Claire Pulpher of The Last Five Years
“It’s a rom-com but so relatable as it’s a bit more naturalistic, maybe even uncomfortable, because we’ve all been through those trials and tribulations,” says Claire. “It’s showing things the creative arts don’t normally show.
“The relationship is seen from each perspective, presented as internal monologues rather than discussions, as they go in opposite directions on the time line with each song.
“Jamie is 23 at the start when he gets his first book deal, and he’s hugely successful from a young age with everything moving so fast that gradually everything spirals out of control. Cathy is struggling in her acting work, and so their career paths are contrasting and are not aligning.”
The Last Five Years will be staged over the next four days with a sound design by Ollie Nash and lighting by Ruth Symington. Tickets for tomorrow to Saturday’s 7.30pm performances and Saturday’s 2.30pm matinee are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
