Reviews

My Romantic History (Sheffield)

| |

16 September 2010

My Romantic History by Glaswegian writer D C Jackson arrives laden with honours from the Edinburgh Fringe – and it’s easy to see why. Sharp wit, inspired invention, acting that moves from confiding ease to obscenity-filled hysteria, amiable satire on the problem-creating abilities of the young middle classes – all make it ideal Fringe material. On the road it still works really well because it is essentially true and very funny.

The play deals with Tom and Amy’s unexciting office romance, a relationship that proceeds almost by default, both of them 30-ish and plagued by the memory of the teenage sweetheart that got away. The story is told from the point of view of first Tom, then Amy, the spoken dialogue the same, not so the unspoken thoughts, now given voice.

Lyndsey Turner’s precise direction and Chloe Lamford’s office-based set are as inventive as the dialogue, with all other settings created from office materials. Iain Robertson and Alison O’Donnell put over Tom and Amy with undemonstrative flair and make the change to the lost teenage loves with ease. Rosalind Sydney completes a trio of outstanding performances as the perpetually optimistic left-over hippy Sasha and everybody else of whichever sex.

– Ron Simpson