A contemporary musical that chronicles the five-year life of a marriage, from meeting to break-up — or from break-up to meeting, depending on how you look at it — opens Thursday for a three-weekend season at Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.

The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs for a New World), is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view.

The show is presented in “forward time,” following the story of their relationship from Jamie’s perspective, starting with their first meeting and following through with their wedding and ultimate breakup. Meanwhile, Cathy relates the story in “reverse” — starting with their breakup and moving backwards in time until their first meeting at the end of the show. Made up mostly of solo turns, with beautiful music and alternately humorous and heart-breakingt lyrics, it is only in the middle of the show that Jamie and Cathy come together as Jamie proposes and the two are wed.

Presented by Island Theatre Workshop, The Last Five Years will open on June 19 and run Thursdays through Sundays at 8:30 p.m. through July 6.

Tickets are $20 at the door. No reservations.

The musical is directed by Carnegie Mellon University drama professor and ITW associate artistic director Kaf Warman, with musical direction by Peter Hutchings.

Carnegie Mellon acting majors Peter Moses and Erika Strasburg-Both lead the cast; they will stay the summer to teach at the workshop’s Children’s Theatre program this summer.