There are always two sides to the breakup of a relationship.
In The Last Five Years, composer Jason Robert Brown gives a nice twist to that truism by telling the story of writer Jamie and actor Cathy from chronologically different viewpoints: Cathy’s account travels backward from the end of their affair to its start, while Jamie’s narrative begins when they first meet.
The songs in this semi-autobiographical show are mostly solos, with the two characters only meeting centre-stage literally at its middle, when they get married.
Brown (Parade, Songs For A New World) draws on a number of musical styles his lyrics can be both laugh-out-loud funny and quite touching. Music director Jason Zinger and his six-member string orchestra capture the music’s various styles well.
Director Kate Stevenson’s production for the newly formed Clearwater Theatre has the benefit of intimacy (it’s performed in the Tarragon Extra Space) and a pair of genial performers (John Boag and Alison Jutzi). Still, Cathy’s material is stronger, and by the end of the show we have a better sense of the ups and downs of her journey than of Jamie’s.
Also, Boag is too restrained in his early optimistic, love-struck songs we see a deeper level as Jamie’s career takes off and he becomes more self-involved. Jutzi, on the other hand, suggests things simmering beneath the surface from the “start” even by her final song, there’s a sense of quivering hope for the future that Boag’s Jamie doesn’t share with us at the beginning of his story.
Even so, there’s much to enjoy in the contrasted narratives of Jamie’s becoming a successful novelist and Cathy’s acting career languishing in troubled auditions and Ohio summer stock. Her often comic professional travails offer a parallel to her stumbling relationship, her work anecdotes functioning as a distraction from personal problems.
Though Brown has mostly written solo numbers, he occasionally cuts to the other character for spoken asides. Stevenson neatly takes advantage of this sense of the other being passively there by having the non-singer just outside the spotlight, a presence in the picture but not its focus. The payoff for this device is the central scene, in which Jutzi steps into Boag’s light to sing a duet with him.
See listings.
Submission calls
Harbourfront Centre has put out a call for projects for its Fresh Ground series of new works. Those chosen receive funding up of to $20,000 toward the development and presentation of their project next season.
Applications should be for a “new, collaborative artistic creation incorporating more than one discipline or field.” The work cannot have been presented or performed previously and must be ready for showing between September 2013 and June 2014.
This year’s World Stage includes two pieces developed through Fresh Ground, Everything Under The Moon (February 18-23) and Dance Marathon (May 18-19). The first opens the 2012 series and the latter closes it.
For details, see harbourfrontcentre.com/whason/freshground.
Deadline is January 30.
On a different scale is the Tarragon’s call for its annual Under 20 for Under 20’s Playwriting Competition.
This is the 15th anniversary of the competition, which invites Canadians under 20 to write theatre pieces no longer than 20 minutes. The script cannot have had a professional production and should require no more than five actors to perform.
The winner receives a $250 prize and a professional workshop reading of the script.
For details, see tarragontheatre.com/outreach/youth/under20.php.
Deadline is February 17.
Tosca talks
The Canadian Opera Company’s Opera 101 returns for the winter season with a panel and audience discussion of Tosca, one of Puccini’s most popular works, which opens at the Four Seasons Centre January 21.
The panellists are soprano Julie Makerov, who shares the title role in the production, along with baritone Mark Delavan as the villainous Scarpia, and director Paul Curran. The free event, hosted by Brent Bambury, happens Tuesday (January 17).
See listings.
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