Landon Bangerter
Professor Zac Curtis
Acting 1
March 1, 2016
The
Last Five Years Critique
“The Last Five Years” is probably
one of the more unique plays I’ve ever seen.
It tells the story of how a young couple first meets and finally splits
apart. There’s a catch though. It tells both characters’ stories in two
completely different time frames at the same time. From our male protagonist’s perspective,
performed terrifically by Trevor Dean, it starts from the past to the supposed
present. From our female protagonist’s
perspective, it starts in the present and works its way to the origin,
essentially both switching positions at the end of the play.
I must admit, it was very confusing;
almost to a fault. I understand that the
play is trying to go for a unique form to tell its story, and while it does
technically succeed, it’s lost me. Both
characters mean well, but I couldn’t help but feel it would’ve been more
emotionally resonate if both characters had been on stage with each other the
whole time. I understand that when you
do that, you lose the distinctive prowess attempting to be established here,
but in my opinion, it would have been better off trying to get these leads to
connect physically, aiding in the emotional connection as well. And while the finale is actually genuinely
touching, I feel it would have been so much more powerful had there been more
of a developed, established connection between our characters.
One of the things I have to note
about this play is its music. I was
completely blown away by it. The mixture
of violins and cellos with piano, bass, and finger-picking guitar playing is
absolutely breathtaking. I could’ve sat
there and listened to solely the music the whole time and I would have been
completely fine with the production.
I very much
liked the way the play was designed. Its
set was very up-close and personal. They
made sure they made good use of the Grand Theatre’s fantastic acoustics. Everything was formed terrifically. It was simple, not overbearing, and direct. The positioning of the band was great
too. Having them formed as a sort of
backdrop with almost a sort of mist wall (how did they do that by the way?) was
very impalpable. It was elusive. The lighting design for the stage had me
absolutely floored. They used a lot
purple and green lighting that oftentimes seemed to bounce off of nothing. I sat there and frequently thought to myself,
“How in the world do they make the lights do that?” It was absolutely stunning. Overall, I sure enjoyed viewing this assembly.
As mentioned before, Trevor Dean,
the actor who played our male lead Jamie, was fantastic. His whole performance felt totally
natural. The way he talked and moved
felt totally intuitive. He stole the
show. That’s not to say that Ashley
Gardner, the actor who played our female lead Cathy, also didn’t do a great
job. She obviously has a beautiful voice
that’s hard to compete with. However, I
did feel like her acting wasn’t as strong, especially in contrast to Dean. There was quite a few times where I could
tell that she wasn’t totally into the role as much as she could have been. Sometimes it felt like she was singing the
lines because she had a great voice, and not totally feeling her character.
Overall, I did
rather enjoy this play. If it had been
my play, I would have done things a little bit differently but my jaw was on
the floor watching the physical production in play. I just wished the story telling was done in a
more emotionally fastened way instead of venturing to wow us with its unique
form of tale. But I thought it was good
play in general and one that I’m sure plenty of other people would enjoy as
well.
REFLECTION
When I look back and think about this play, I'm charmed by the fact of how honest it is. The whole play is about falling in love and falling out of it, happening simultaneously by two different people. It's two experiences that we all encounter at some point in our lives. This production helps reiterate the fact how wonderful it is to fall in love and feel something totally special for another person. On the other hand, we're reminded how absolutely heartbreaking it is when things don't work out. At one point or another, a chord is bound to be struck. Whether it's happening to you or somebody else, we should have the capacity to feel remorse and be willing to console the pain, whether it's our own or someone else's.
