A heartbreaking and equally heartwarming new musical with a fantastic, talented cast
Before After is a new musical playing at Southwark Playhouse, telling the story of Ben and Ami, a pair that meet by chance on a hillside. She knows exactly who he is as the previous love of her life, but he doesn’t remember her. The production utilises beautiful imagery throughout its original songs, and allows a simple but effective set to be transformed into a restaurant, a home, a sunset, and the tree at the top of the hillside. This creates a mesmerising setting forming their romantic place ‘Before’ and the meet cute of the two protagonists ‘After’. The show has very clear timing, shifting between past and present, before and after, with precision and great use of costume and hairstyling to indicate these jumps. The use of projections indicating ‘Before’ or ‘After’ also helped!
Grace Mouat playing Ami displays effortless vocals, her tone beautifully soaring within this intimate venue. Her excellent ability to portray the stressed, burnt out twenty-something with the overpowering want to please her parent whilst not being entirely fulfilled with her current path, the spontaneous woman looking for excitement and a love that will last, the preoccupied partner struggling to juggle everything, and the organised, gallery owner following her dream whilst trying to find the words to tell the truth, demonstrates almost the full spectrum of emotions within a complicated, loving, turbulent relationship and work-life balance that many, of all ages, will resonate with.
This, paired with Jacob Fowler’s charming, amusing portrayal of Ben and his stunning vocals, creates a captivating and honest portrayal of their relationship, from strangers to partners and back again. Fowler portrays the charismatic, disorganised, slightly Hugh Grant in the 1990s-esque Ben with ease and humour, and perfectly depicts his confusion and struggle as he searches to understand his life pre-amnesia. There are moments where the decision making feels fast and slightly more exploration of some of Ami and Ben’s thoughts as the show reaches its conclusion would enhance the understanding and portrayal of their relationship, however this 90 minute show manages to include a great amount of storytelling, emotion, and humour throughout.
Before After explores Ben and Ami’s ability to communicate, understand their past, and navigate their present and future, using effective props and costumes, and a beautiful score to create a heartfelt production. Southwark Playhouse is a small, welcoming venue perfect for this two person show, and following a successful live-stream in 2020, this fully staged production of an exciting new musical beautifully captures the emotion, commitment and complications of twenty-somethings searching for career, family, and romantic fulfilment through Ami and Ben’s unique story. A fantastic performance from both Mouat and Fowler, Before After is a gorgeous new musical!