Sometimes Life Moves Backwards and Forwards Reviewed by Mary Alderson Sometimes our lives just seem to be flying by so quickly. We are moving forward at a rapid rate. Then, sometimes, when all is wonderful, life stands still for a few glorious moments. But other times, we are struggling and life feels like it’s moving backwards. We just aren’t getting ahead. I don’t necessarily believe that this was the message that Jason Robert Brown was delivering when he wrote The Last Five Years. But somehow, this was what the production on the Firehouse Stage at Thousand Island Playhouse brought to my mind. The musical has only two characters, Jamie and Cathy, and it’s all about their relationship – falling in love, getting married, breaking up. But there’s a catch you need to know in order to really understand what’s happening: Cathy starts telling the story in the present, and then she works her way back reliving the last five years. At the same time, Jamie describes their relationship, starting when he first fell in love with Cathy five years ago and moving forward. The opening scene is set in the present and Cathy is heartbroken over the end of their marriage. On their table, she finds a note from Jamie and his wedding ring. He’s gone. In the next scene it’s five years in the past, Jamie is happy and head-over-heels in love with her as the relationship begins. Later, Jamie is increasingly unhappy with Cathy, while she moves back through their blissful early days together. The action flips back and forth between the two characters, until the middle of the show, when they are on stage together at the time of their wedding. It’s the only time they are seen together, and it may be the only moment when ...