My Romantic History

Company: Red Stitch
Venue: Red Stitch Actors Theatre, St Kilda, Melbourne
Dates: To 13 August 2011

It's a romantic comedy like you haven't seen before. Red Stitch has once again outdone themselves with a fantastic interpretation of DC Jackson's My Romantic History, the tale of two lovers and their cringeworthy attempts to make their relationships work.

Directed by David Whitely and performed by three superb actors, My Romantic History grabs romance by the guts and flushes it down the toilet – literally. The set is constructed of three public toilets. Amazingly, these work as office cubicles, houses and bars as the actors leap effortlessly from character to character.

Tim Potter plays Tom, the dime a dozen guy in his thirties who drunkenly sleeps with a colleague then tries desperately to backpedal. He has a fear of commitment, and inability to return phone calls and a total disregard for the woman he is sleeping with. Unlikeable as he is on paper though, you can't help but adore Tom. Potter is hilarious and all consuming as this weedy, lost little boy who is just trying to get through life without anyone noticing.

His “love interest” Amy (Zoe Boesen) is the classic early thirties woman who is the last singleton she knows. She is forthright and no nonsense, but also irresistibly eager to please. Boesen is also the kind of attractive that makes you wonder how she could possibly be single, but she is so accurately familiar with all the catastrophic Dating Don'ts, you could cry to watch her fumble her way though life. That is, if she weren't so unbearably funny.

And then there is Ngaire Dawn Fair, the shape shifting third party who slips innocuously from the rambunctious mother to the last class ex boyfriend. Fair's chameleon effort is flawless; she is convincing as each character with just the slightest change of appearance.

Told from two different perspectives, My Romantic History starts out with Tom's view on things. He muddles over how a one night stand landed him in a relationship without him noticing, and gives us the painful backstory as to how he came to be like he is. There is a thorough history of all his broken relationships, right back to his very first love that he never got over. Amy's perspective is similar and gives new meaning to the phrase “two sides of every story.” Her tale is by no means less sad, but also every bit as belly laugh hysterical.

The crux of the story doesn't emerge until halfway through, and it has a more serious, sentimental side to it, but My Romantic History is the romantic comedy to end all romantic comedies. It's the perfect first date play and irrefutably, the perfect last date play.

Corina Thorose