New musical theatre’s touring debut in Birnam

Sep 30 2011 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

GREEN Room is a new, Edinburgh-based touring musical theatre company which is poised to open with a production of The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown.

And Birnam Arts Centre is the first venue outside the capital on Green Room’s tour.

The Last Five Years is Jason Robert Brown’s award-winning musical about two New Yorkers in their 20s – Jamie and Cathy – who fall in and out of love.

The musical’s unconventional structure has Jamie relating his story chronologically, while Cathy starts with their break-up and tells her story backwards: the audience only see their paths coincide once, on their wedding day.

Drawing on Brown’s own experiences of a failed marriage, the result is an intimate and emotionally powerful portrayal of love fought for and ultimately lost.

Green Room’s production of The Last Five Years will premiere at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh on October 5 and 6, and will then tour to the Birnam Arts Centre on Saturday, October 8; and to the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen on Sunday, October 9.

Tickets for The Last Five Years at Birnam Arts Centre are available on 01350 727674 and online www.birnamarts.com

l Green Room was originally an idea of Neil Metcalfe and Michael Richardson, who both studied at The University of Edinburgh before pursuing careers in music and theatre.

They decided to start a company with the key aims of broadening the definition of musical theatre; to create high quality, innovative and intensely theatrical productions using a diverse range of dramatic forms; to work with, support and nurture young singing actors; and to tour widely throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally.

Joining Neil and Michael earlier this year to form Green Room were two singing actors, Sarah Haddath and Michael Davies.