MY ROMANTIC HISTORY

Context
 My romantic history playwrights by D.C Jackson is a play that
looks at two characters named Tom and Amy. Tom is new in the
workplace and joins Amy on a night out where things can only
get worse as this takes us through a rollercoaster of there past
failed relationships and how they’ve never truly gotten over there
childhood lovers.

 Through dialogue within the play I believe that the play is set
within Glasgow, Scotland and that it’s set between a time period
of mid 2000s to early 2010s.
 Context

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.
 Context
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.
 Context
The relationship between the two characters grows as we learn that after they got off with
each other that Toms obsession over her has grown much much more. This is obvious as
he doesn’t want her to go to Canada.

“I wish you weren’t going to Canada”

“I’m going to miss you so much”

These two lines clearly convey that toms feelings for have only grown. Once Alison is in
Canada. He talks to his mate Jessie about it all and how no other girl he cares about.

“I don’t want either of them. I just was Alison”

Not long after this Jessie drops a bombshell on Tom which creates a broken relationship
between the two characters of Tom and Alison.
 Exploration of themes and issues

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
 Exploration of themes and issues

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.
 Exploration of themes and issues
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.
 Exploration of themes and issues

 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
 Referencing
 End Reference
3.O’Kelly É. What percentage of the IRA were/are catholic . Quora . Published January 30, 2019. Accessed January 26,
2024. https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-the-IRA-were-are-Catholic/answer/%C3%89amon-OKelly

End Reference
2.Times I. People assume it’s Protestants laughing at jokes about catholics and vice versa . Talktime .
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/people-assume-it-is-protestants-laughing-at-jokes-about-catholics-and-vice-
versa-1.624528#:~:text=The%20Tim%20Malloys%20were%20an,for%20a%20Catholic%20in%20Scotland.
Published February 20, 2010. Accessed January 26, 2024.

End Reference
4.Bite size BBC. Immigration to Scotland 1830s - 1939. BBC Bitesize . Published January 26, 2024. Accessed January 26,
2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zr6ycdm/revision/4#
 Referencing
 End Reference
5.Senior H. Fenians . In: The Canadian Enclypedia . Hereward Senior ; 2006. Accessed
January 27, 2024.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fenians#:~:text=Fenians%20were
%20members%20of%20a%20movement%20that%20started%20in%201857,established
%20the%20Irish%20Republican%20Brotherhood.
End Reference
6.Jackson D. My Romantic History . Faber & Faber ; 2010:112 pages . Accessed January 25, 2024.
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/My_Romantic_History.html?
id=x8iM4mvVOqIC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
Thanks for listening
Shane Boyle