Review: My Romantic History, by DC Jackson, at The Birmingham Rep.
Yet another cultured night of theatre at the Rep. In other words, blaspheming, casual racism and unspeakably dirty acts under the bed covers.
My Romantic History has all of the above. No wonder it’s my favourite play of the year.
Really, I can’t recommend it enough. The premise is simplicity itself, though the execution dazzles. Tom has stumbled into an office romance with Amy.
He only intends having a boozy fling, but it looks as though she could be a bunny boiler.
In the early part of the drama I was concerned DC Jackson’s vision was a tad chauvinistic. (Not that concerned. I’m a bloke, after all.)
Then the play took one of its many clever twists, allowing the audience to see the office romance from Amy’s perspective. A very different version of the tale that Tom is telling.
Meanwhile, there are numerous flashbacks, focusing on the couples’ early lives, and their relationships with childhood sweethearts.
Once again all is not as it first appears.
Three actors appear star the show, with only basic scenery. Instead of being a weakness, this is one of the play’s many strengths, allowing flights of fancy shaped by nothing more than cardboard boxes and raw imagination.
And what about all that swearing, suspect views and shifty shenanigans under the blankets?
Well, it’s all done in the best possible taste (no, really) and Jackson never oversteps the mark.
My Romantic History is raunchy, crude, modern, cynical and topped by a perversely sweet finale.
Not a history at all, in fact. Instead, it’s what theatre should always be, yet so seldom is - the future.
*(My Romantic History runs ntil September 11.)
