by Caitlin Bitzegaio. @caitorade.
BROOKLYN, NY - In what their friends can only assume is an avante-garde immersive theater revival of The Last Five Years, this couple's break up story makes no sense. Former partners, Devin Ewing, 29, and Rose Garsh, 31, have wildly different narratives about the demise of their relationship, including the timeline, which has many mutual friends scratching their heads.
“Did Rose attending a coder boot camp happen before or after they moved in together, and how did that motivate her character to act from such a place of isolation?” wondered pal Mel Finn, who was invited to the revival’s previews, meaning a group chat that Rose created a few months ago labeled “BFFFFFFFFFFFs.” “They’re both huge musical theater buffs, so I think this is an amazing tribute to the stage. Or are they really breaking up? Honestly, I'm confused.”
Consistent with the characters from the source material, Devin and Rose never interacted in front of the audience.
“Like you might see her standing outside of Happy Hour waiting for him to leave,” explained Devin’s co-worker Tony Franco, while he connected strings on his evidence board, trying to piece together the truth of Devin and Rose’s relationship from bits and pieces he’s gathered from social media. “But they were never really present together. It was powerful, yet frustrating storytelling.”
Friends and roommates Ben Nance and Kevin Helm have been arguing about the revival for days.
“For me, I loved that they gender swapped the cheater. Very feminist. Very 2022,” said Nance, while he and Helm sewed Halloween costumes based on the recent New York theater cult-hit Circle Jerk. “Whereas Kevin thinks having Rose cheat on Devin lets the patriarchy off the hook too easily.”
“Also,” clarified Helm while comparing their sewing work to their Pinterest board titled “Halloween Theater Ideas FINAL", “It’s pretty messed up Rose cheated on Devin.”
Performances of the unofficial The Last Five Years revival are ongoing throughout Brooklyn.