Anna Burnside reviews a production that ‘keeps the energy as high as the gag count and sends even the Tinder generation home with hope in their hearts.’
When DC Jackson wrote My Romantic History, back in the late 2000s, little did he know that the office romance was in its death agony. Today 70% of young people are single and plan to stay that way. And if they’re not in retail or hospitality, they work from home.
To the post-Tinder world, Amy and Tom’s desk-based mating rituals are quaint and faintly terrifying at the same time. They go for Friday drinks, get hammered, roll back to hers and - that’s it. Not a swipe or algorithm in sight.
But Jackson’s play is much more than a period piece set in the days of ‘dial nine for an outside line’. What makes it relevant today is its central premise. Do we ever get over our first love? And how do our rosy memories of Mr (or Ms) Right get in the way of finding Mr Right Now?
Jackson addresses these questions, and more, with wit, nuance and tight plotting. We start off hearing Tom’s internal monologue beside the office banter, halfway through the point of view changes and it becomes clear that these are two unreliable narrators sharing a canteen and kitchen.
Lewie Watson is tremendous as Tom, a gormless Aberdonian with a young man’s appetites and various useless strategies for meeting them. Rebecca Wilkie is an uncompromising Amy, torn between the pleasures of the single life and the booming bassline of her biological clock.
Julie Wilson Nimmo, as office weirdo Sasha, brings an important plot point wrapped up in sandalwood and comedy samba drumming.
Lizzie Powell’s zingy lighting design adds depth and motion to the already sparkling script, pointing up the back and forwards in time, as well as the leaps from actual dialogue to the characters’ tortured headspace.
Director Johnny McKnight knows how to colour in the big emotions and finds touching moments in among the comedy. He keeps the energy as high as the gag count and sends even the Tinder generation home with hope in their hearts.
My Romantic History performs at the Tron Theatre until 13 June 2026. For further details, go to the company’s website.
Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.
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