5 Years

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Fri 14 Apr 2023 - Thu 22 Jun 2023

What price would you pay for the perfect body? That’s the question being asked in a new comedy-drama by Birmingham-based writer Hayley Davis.

Telling the story of Yasmin, a woman in her thirties who is prepared to trade five years of her life for physical beauty, 5 Years premieres at Wolverhampton Arena Theatre on April 14 and plays Midlands Arts Centre on June 21-2.



Hayley was inspired to create 5 Years after being shocked by national research which revealed what people would sacrifice for the ideal body. “I heard about a bit of research that was done by the Centre for Appearance Research in Bristol where they had gone up and down the UK, going into universities and asking predominantly women of all ages a question – ‘If somebody offered you the perfect body, what would you be willing to trade in return?’ And I was really surprised at the responses.”

Hayley explains: “These were women in university who were willing to give up a first class degree or salary, some women said they were willing to give up ten years of their lives and a significant proportion said five years of their lives. I spoke to other people about the study and asked if they would trade five years for the perfect body, imagining everybody would say ‘absolutely not’. But the majority of people didn’t give a flat-out no, instead they were prepared to consider it, even to negotiate.”

Initially shocked that people would consider something so dramatic for the sake of appearance, Hayley then asked herself the same question. “It was just crazy to me. But I thought ‘five years is a bit drastic but what would I trade if I could have the perfect body?’ And then there’s the question of what does that even mean? The idea of the perfect body is so fluid, it changes all the time. At the moment we can’t trade five years but actually some people are trading their lives in that search for perfection. They are having surgery, going and doing really dangerous things, taking skin-lightening creams that can cause cancer, having Brazilian Butt Lifts which mean you can die on the table, or Turkey Teeth where people are living in agony because they’ve shaved down perfectly healthy teeth. It’s just torturous.”

And so she began writing 5 Years. “I thought it would be interesting to have a woman who says ‘yes, I will do this’ and then explore how people get to this point. The show isn’t saying ‘you should do this’ or ‘this will happen’, it’s posing a question and inviting people to come and sit with us and think about it.”

The protagonist Yasmin is in her thirties and disillusioned with her life – so she decides to change her appearance, believing that is the one thing she needs most. “We’re told that if we attain a certain look or have a certain beauty then everything else will slot into place so Yasmin decides she will have that look. She is picked to be the first woman to go ahead with it and we see what happens from there.”

The 70-minute production harnesses cutting-edge technology to visually explore the themes around body image. “I’m working with a really brilliant producer and director Rebecca Gadsby whose company Inside Theatre provides tech solutions to theatres,” Hayley explains. “We’ve partnered with Sheffield Hallam University and Bristol-based Holotronica who specialise in really interesting holographic technology for the show. There are these huge stadium events where they are trying to integrate digital technology, like ABBA Voyage for example, and we wanted to look at whether we could do that for smaller-scale shows. There has been a lot of work and research into making that happen and the results are really spectacular.”



Hayley, who lives in Great Barr, undertook an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham while she was developing 5 Years. “I took time to build my skills and write in different mediums and that course really pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me to look at the structure of stories in a different way. That was immensely helpful.”%

And it was important for the story to be applicable to people of all ages and backgrounds. “We thought a lot about making the show relevant to men as well as women as, more and more, we are seeing these issues bleed out into men’s lives in a dangerous way. This pressure to conform to a particular way of looking is coming from everywhere and men are feeling that as well. We did some research and development for the show and invited mixed audiences, men and women of all different ages and invited feedback. A lot of men anonymously wrote back that they saw the issues reflected back to them as well because they also have those sorts of struggles. I don’t think anyone escapes it.”

The play is a two-hander in which Hayley performs with actress Lauren Poveda. The team have received Arts Council funding for the tour, which currently runs until the end of June. Alongside the tour, the team are also holding a series of workshops including a body-positive event developed with support from mental health charity Flourish, a workshop aimed at health professionals and an event encouraging young women to explore careers in technology.

Hayley says that 5 Years may be exploring some serious issues but it does so with plenty of humour. “Essentially audiences want to be entertained so even though it’s a difficult subject, it’s a warm and funny show,” she says. “I’d encourage people to see it as something that is thought-provoking, entertaining and uplifting. It has some pretty cool tech which is always a great thing to see, we’re doing things that audiences don’t necessarily see on a smaller scale which is exciting. And I think it might also be for people who don’t think theatre is for them because I’m basically inviting people to come for an hour and have a chat, have a little think and be entertained.”

5 Years plays Wolverhampton Arena Theatre on April 14, for tickets click here and Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham On June 21-22, for tickets click here . For more on the show see https://www.5years.co.uk

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