The Years - Almeida / Harold Pinter

I managed to get a ticket this evening in the returns queue which I was delighted about. I arrived at about 5.30 and the lady at the box office told me the queue started at 4.45. There were about 10 people ahead of me (plus 3 or 4 more who were crossed out so must have already been lucky) and it looked from her list like they mostly wanted two tickets each so I didn’t think I stood much of a chance but she called my name at about 6.50 which was perfect timing.

I really enjoyed it but strangely it wasn’t so much for the content of the play or the performances, although obviously both are excellent. What I loved was the five actors being the ‘universe’ of the play and doing everything on the stage and playing everyone. I felt a huge affinity with them going through things that often had parallels with my life and made me think a lot about the parallels there must be with my mum’s life, who is more the author’s age.

It felt very intimate and like we were letting the men in the room into secrets they maybe shouldn’t have been privy to about the real, unvarnished life and thoughts of a woman. I loved that the actors were really putting themselves out there. It’s pretty sexual in places, they sing when most of them aren’t singers, play instruments that by all accounts they’ve only just learnt. It all feels super vulnerable and I think that’s what I loved the most - just the feeling of being in the room with them as they were living Annie’s life. Really special.

We had one show stop during ‘that’ scene but before anything really got going so not sure what that was about and a man audibly heaving or vomiting later in the same scene who was ushered out while the play continued. It was really a shame that they had to stop the show (although obviously I understand that there was very little choice) because it’s quite a segmented play anyway, going through a person’s whole life in 2 hrs, and to have to make a key scene feel kind of disjointed was a bit of a loss. Still a powerful moment though.

I was sitting in front of a couple on the bus home who had seen it and she loved it but he said he couldn’t really engage with it. So now I’m going to go upthread and read all the comments I’ve been avoiding for fear of too many spoilers and see what others, particularly men, thought!

Just had to come back after reading the comment by harlow about the other actors washing Ramola Garai. I found this the most moving part of the whole play. Another instance of extreme vulnerability and supportive teamwork which exemplified the whole piece.