'My Romantic History' is a comedy about an office fling explored from both the perspectives of Tom and Amy via scenes acted out based on information given to the audience in asides. It’s a story about memory, perception, and reality. I viewed the text through the prism of the work of Pia Mellody, a preeminent authority, lecturer and educator in addictions and relationships. She’s one of the seminal voices on codependency, which she refers to as developmental immaturity syndrome, whereby a less-than-nurturing upbringing results in a series of characteristics carried into adulthood. Issues with reality is one of those characteristics. This unhealthy relationship with self then often leads to addiction;
Both Tom and Amy have difficult or seemingly non-existent relationships with their fathers, and every one of their past romantic relationships falls into the push-pull dynamic of the co-addicted tango between love addicts and love avoidants. So this then infused a lot of my design decisions.
Despite the deep themes, I needed to develop theatrical wit to release the story’s playfulness.
Set:
Given the sexual nature of the writing and the direct audience address I decided to invoke the formality of a TEDx talk, but instead have it as BEDx. This structure was at the back of the stage, with the B and D flickering off to reveal Ex whenever we were in the past talking of an old romantic interest.
To play on the concept of developmental immaturity, I chose two plastic chairs reminiscent of those you’d find in a school. These become everything we needed them to become to ensure the play rattled along at pace. They were office chairs, the headrest on a bed, a wall to lean on, a stool to perch on in a bar, a car etc.
Lighting:
To invoke the toxic co-addicted tango I used red and blue lights to convey the notion of being relationally 'hot' and 'cold'. During asides, I pulled out these highlights leaving soft-beamed warmly-coloured spotlights on all sides to cover the entire stage.
I diverted from this in the final scene where both asides coeless as Tom and Amy discuss her impending termination of the baby. From that moment we lose the red and blue highlights and stay in the broader warmer light. This was because the push/pull dynamic has ceased to be a key part of their relationship, and we’re finally getting to witness them as an adult partnership that properly communicates.
Sound:
DC Jackson's writing requires cues to be picked up on and constantly kept in the air, so I needed to find a way to quickly move in and out of the multiple different locations whilst orientating the audience as to where we were. To do this, I used Edgar Wright as an influence and assigned one brash sound effect to introduce each change of geography.
