My romantic history

Relevant facts and figures

My Romantic History playwrighted by DC Jackson

introduces two characters called Tom and Amy. Tom is
new in the workplace and joins Amy on a staff night out
which only causes trouble. This takes us through on a
rollercoaster about there past failed relationships and the
fact that they’ve never truly gotten over there childhood
lovers.

Through references that are used within the dialogue I

believe that the play is set in Glasgow, Scotland and takes
place in a time period between mid 2000s

The play written in 2008 and published in 2010. The

reason I believe that it’s set in Glasgow, Scotland is from
Toms line “Don Juan in Dennistoun”. Dennistoun is a
location located not long from Glasgow’s city centre.
To continue from the previous slide the reason I believe
this is because Tom mentions that he had a party with
Jerry Richmond In 1996 . “In the Easter holiday of 1996
Jerry Richmond had a party”
As we all know we discover that Tom is aged 31 and is
aged 16 when this party takes place so in my opinion I
believe that the play is set in 2011.
To also add to why I believe this is because when Tom
and Amy go to the cinema the playwright gives us
names of movies that don’t exist such as “professor hat,
Floral Bonett, shit storm” and I think this is because the
play was written before the time period that it’s set in.
There is also a reference to the wire which is an actual Tv
show that premiered from 2002 – 2008

Within the production I play one out of three

versions of tom ( Past Tom ) which has a few
relationships with the other characters in the play.
One of those relationships are with his Childhood
lover Alison Hamilton. In the first few scenes there
in it’s obvious that the relationship is very one
sided as Tom is obsessed with her while she is
completely grossed out by him “You freak. Look I
don’t like you. I don’t fancy you. I will never get off
with you”. Its pretty evident that she’s not
interested at all but for Tom things only get better.
The relationship only grows between the two after
a party in Jerry Richmond’s house. The pair share
a drunken conversation that shapes up the entire
future of the majority of Toms adult life.

Another relationship that past Tom has is with his mum.

The relationship is clearly loving but Tom just being your
typical teenager which is conveyed when he’s talking
back to his mum about leaving Glasgow for Dundee just
to see Alison Hamilton.

After progressively reading through the play there was a lot

of themes and issues that stood out to me which I think could
be controversial. The many themes that we see are the
following:
 Alcoholism
 Racism
 Sectarianism
 Romance
 Betrayal
 Hope
 Forgiveness
 Love
 Family
One of themes that I find are
significantly important throughout the
play is Alcoholism. It’s everywhere in the
play, from the very start when tom and
Amy share a night out and until the end
when Amy is hammering them away
with Sasha knowing she is pregnant. For
both characters this could be there way
of coping with there life issues such as
there past relationships and for Amy to
deal with the pregnancy. Tom haven’t
been the same since Alison Hamilton so
this might be just his way of forgetting
about it and dealing with it.

By doing research I’ve learned that the

UK has one of highest worldwide rates
for drinking while pregnant that
percentage being 41.3 – 75%. Drinking
while carrying out a pregnancy can be
fatal as leading to things just as
 premature birth, miscarriage, and a
condition called foetal alcohol spectrum
disorder.

Another theme that gets brought up is

sectarianism which is through the scenes of
Amy and Calvin Kennedy.
 “Fuck the pope and the IRA”
 “I’m not a fenian”
 “My dads a pure big mad Tim”
The phrases above dive into years and years of
history. We learn through these scenes that
Calvin and Amy are attending a catholic school.

Referring back to the pope line there is a

connection between the pope and the IRA ( Irish
Republican Army ). The pope is the leader of the
Catholic Church and the majority of all members
in the IRA grew up with a catholic background.
The term “Fenian” which is used regularly today
came from “Fianna Eirionn” . A movement which
was supposed take Irish independence from
Britain lead by a group of Irish warriors.
Members of Irish community would immigrate
between the years of 1830 – 1915 into Scotland.
In the early years of 1900s in Glasgow, Scotland a
irish catholic street gang was formed named “The
Tim malloys”. In the current day and age it is
another word used to describe a catholic

Sectarianism Is well known in current time for

the old firm rivalry between Rangers and
Celtic. The phrase used by Calvin Kennedy
“Tim” , “Fenian” are used a lot by opposition
fans and is another word to name Celtic fans.
Amy also names drops one of the clubs “if
you’ve got a man…who isn’t a rangers support
then he’s probably the best your going to get”
and Calvin name drops “and Ally McCoist are
my guys”. Ally McCoist being an ex rangers
player, manager and currently doing punditry.
Sectarianism goes back along way to early
1900s.