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Because We Said We Would

Theatre 118, Glasgow

Three stars

 

When Jeanie met Tam, it was love at first song in Helen Fox’s new play, which charts the life and times of two friends who bond over music, but who never quite get to sing the same tune. Jeanie and Tam are just seven years old when they first hear each other back in the 1970s. Their world is one of bubblegum pop from Brotherhood of Man to ABBA, finding mutual ground over the all-conquering Queen, even if Tam doesn’t know the right words. 

 

Even at that young age the pair understand the power of finding a kindred spirit, and swear to meet at the same time and place every five years, come what may. As musical tastes change, this works fine for a while. Jeanie and Tam even form a band, and while the music never stops for Tam, Jeanie’s world falls silent, and for all they try to stay true to their five-year promise, things are never quite the same again. 

 

At first glance, Fox’s play is classic rites of passage stuff, a nostalgia tinged yarn of everyday friendships with a brilliant soundtrack and a set of t-shirts that mark the ages, from Frankie Says to Britpop and beyond. As long buried secrets finally come to light, however, something infinitely more troubling changes everything. 

 

Ellie J Stevens’ production for Fox and Hound Theatre Company breaks up the nineteen bite size scenes of Fox’s play by having the two performers draw some key totems of Jeanie and Tam’s lives onto a giant whiteboard. This acts as the stage back wall in the ad hoc studio theatre built in the office block now christened Theatre 118. 

 

With Fox herself playing Jeanie, and Tam brought to life by Codge Crawford, the end result is a moving look at how two young lives full of hope find and lose each other. With Fox and Crawford on stage throughout the show’s eighty minutes, as Jeanie and Tam move from being excited infants before treading very different paths, this heartfelt tale of loss shows how the long term trauma following one appalling moment of violation can cause the music to stop forever. 


The Herald, November 10th 2025

 

Ends 

 

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