BWW Reviews: Daisy's Madhouse Produces THE LAST 5 YEARS
By: Teresa Rodrick Jun. 10, 2014
Photo taken by John Gibbons
Daisy's Madhouse is producing THE LAST 5 YEARS, the musical about a relationship over a period of 5 years. The timeline is from beginning to end or from the end to the beginning. In this story, you hear about the relationship from each character's perspective. However, you hear the wife's story backwards (from breakup to their meeting) and the husband's forwards (from meeting to breakup).
The musical is presented in vignettes. Each song represents one stage of the relationship. There are very few lines in the play. Sarah Wright as Cathy and David Laramar Wheeler as Jamie do a good job of helping the audience understand the plot by how they sing the songs to us.
Cathy and Jamie seemed to be a happy couple when they meet. The trouble starts to happen when Jamie starts to become successful with his writing and Cathy is just starting to figure out what she wants to do. He becomes even more successful as she is struggling and the relationship seems to suffer. What the musical does, by the device of telling the story in two directions - is give you the option of trying to decide why the relationship fails and if there is fault on one character more than the other. So, do you think it's someone's fault? You will have to come and see to make a decision.
Daisy's Madhouse Theatre is a true gypsy theatre company. The production is taking place at The Watercooler, a large room with a stage on one end, but more for conferences or meet and greets than for theatre, or "found space". With the limitations of found space, they did a great job. They used projections for settings, however at times the light from the projector did odd things to the actor's faces. There were minimal set pieces so they did not require "wings" for the set, and being minimal did not take away from the production. The sound was good and you could hear the actors sing, which is important in a musical.
You cannot go wrong if you want to see a play then to come and see THE LAST 5 YEARS. Daisy's Madhouse should be proud of the production they presented.
For more information and to purchase tickets please visit: Daisy's Madhouse Theatre
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