The Years at Harold Pinter Theatre
“Memory pairs the living with the dead.” Those are the words, uttered in foggy darkness, that set in action the events of The Years, Eline Arbo’s outstanding adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s titular 2008 memoir. It’s a concurrently objective yet subjective, depersonalised yet deeply personal account of a nameless woman’s struggles from her formative years to old age. Except, this isn’t one woman’s story; this is a tale of collective womanhood, and there is seldom a reference to first-person selfhood in the play.
Set in France, there are recurrent references to Simone de Beauvoir and Françoise Sagan, themselves two diametrical figures of French feminism. Starting in 1941 and ending in 2006, the phenomenal quintet of actors – Deborah Findlay, Romola Garai, Gina McKee, Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner – take on multiple roles, genders and ages throughout the performance, each embodying the woman at different stages in her life.
A bright-eyed Rose-Bremner kicks off the first chapter of the protagonist’s journey, depicting her as a young child. Inculcated with religious doctrine, she is taught to be disgusted by her reposing womanhood from a young age. As she reaches her teens and is then played by Mohindra, she discovers her erogenous zones and thus masturbation.
The play explores how female sexuality is constantly invaded by toxic male entitlement, as men leer at the girl’s developing body, causing her to feel shame simply for existing in a female form. This invasion becomes all the more literal when she finds herself consummating her relationship with her crush, only for him to violate her. She notes that she does not ask to be pleasured as he uses her body as a vessel for gratification; to do so would be shameful. Mohindra gives a powerhouse performance during this harrowing scene, flitting between the roles of the abused and her abuser with cathartic finesse.
In 1964, the protagonist, now a young woman and played by Garai, attempts to terminate a pregnancy with a knitting needle. Unable to follow through on it, she has an illegal abortion. During what is perhaps the play’s most poignant scene, she writhes in blood as she experiences contractions following the procedure. Garai is a marvel to witness, her performance raw, visceral and gut-wrenching.
As the decades go on, The Years explores themes of disillusionment, dispossession and imperialism via the spectre of war. The latter is particularly befitting, as the world, much like the demands of ever-changing idealised womanhood, is portrayed as in a constant state of war.
The production is haunting – at times sparse and primitive, before veering into more evocative terrain, such as extended musical interludes. It successfully weaves between the two, with flashpoints of 20th-century motifs and images abruptly shrouded in existential darkness. A poignant meditation on memory and the importance of memorialisation, The Years may be a time capsule, but its ruminations on the female experience are timeless.
Antonia Georgiou
Photos: Helen Murray
The Years is at Harold Pinter Theatre until 19th April 2025. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.
Watch the trailer for The Years at Harold Pinter Theatre here:
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