'The Years' review — a profound and shattering depiction of womanhood

Read our review of The Years, starring Deborah Findlay, Gina McKee, Romola Garai, Anjli Mohindra, and Harmony Rose-Bremner, now in performances at the Harold Pinter Theatre through 19 April.

Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s rich and layered memoir The Years is a triumph. Womanhood in all its many forms is laid bare on a sparse stage, which rightly steals none of the attention from the drama’s five accomplished actors: Deborah Findlay, Gina McKee, Romola Garai, Anjli Mohindra, and Harmony Rose-Bremner, who convey different phases of Ernaux’s life (she remains an unnamed Frenchwoman in the play) from 1941 to 2006.

The drama, like Ernaux’s memoir, recounts world events from the Second World War, the boom in mass consumerism, and Kennedy’s assassination, to legalisation of the pill in France, Princess Diana’s death, and the Twin Towers terror attack, showing how they leave their mark in the collective memory. But they are footnotes in a personal history, remaining secondary to universal experiences such as losing your virginity, motherhood, and menopause.

Mohindra (playing Ernaux from 16-22) cleverly foregrounds this during a masturbation sequence, as the ensemble attempts to speak about the time period but her ecstatic moans drown out their voices. Ditto, McKee, frustrated and abandoned by her lover (and playing Ernaux from 40-59), interrupts the ensemble’s narration with a frantic outburst — her personal turmoil taking precedence over politics.

Ernaux’s memoir defies form — it is both personal and objective, employing the collective ‘we’ to discuss communal experiences. The word ‘I’ is absent in her writing, but Arbo brings us even closer to Ernaux by relaxing this objective stance in choice moments, such as a forced first sexual encounter and an abortion scene. The result of both is shattering, thanks to moving and raw performances by Mohindra and Garai. The latter performance, which has been the subject of numerous headlines since the play’s first UK outing at the Almeida Theatre in 2024, is particularly brave from Garai, as she bucks on a table, toes curling, her thighs coated in blood. The scene is horrific without being gratuitous, though the show’s well-signposted trigger warnings are much needed.

The production showcases the full spectrum of female experience, exposing rarely seen images on stage, such as an older woman enjoying her sexuality, as Findlay is caressed by her younger lover (played by Mohindra).

The play is a true ensemble effort, with the fluid movement between each version of Ernaux echoing the gentle passage of time. The performers, always in tune with each other, pass on the baton as Ernaux grows older: in one instance, Garai and McKee mirror each other’s movements and a lighting change signals the transition; in another, McKee and Findlay simply touch hands. The cast also expertly play a multitude of other characters from Garai’s gruff, cigar-smoking uncle figure, to Findlay and McKee’s boisterous young boys, and Rose-Bremner’s aloof, slouched teenager.

The production’s set design is economical, the use of props Brechtian, with all that the cast needs surrounding the perimeter. The kitchen table, the heart of the home, is always at the centre of the stage and white table cloths stained by different key moments in Ernaux’s life, from the blood of her abortion to smears of children’s food in early motherhood, are strung up on a washing line. It is a genius inclusion, which shows how personal memory can be ignited by something as simple as a faded stain on a table cloth.

Book The Years tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Romola Garai, Gina McKee, Deborah Findlay, Harmony Rose-Bremner, and Anjli Mohindra. (Photo by Helen Murray)