Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Four stars
Love hurts in D.C. Jackson’s potty-mouthed sitcom writ large. This is something to do with the succession of studiedly adolescent one-line gags peppered throughout as much as the growing pains of impending adulthood, not to mention the hangovers that go with both. Either way, it’s complicated.
This is how it rolls for Tom and Amy, the terminally feckless thirty something duo whose drunken one-night office amour helps stave off grown up responsibilities. Until, that is, they have no choice. Inbetween, Jackson has his sort of happy couple rewind on assorted teenage romances that left their mark like a bad home made tattoo. With Tom and Amy’s messy story told by each in turn as they narrate their own unreliable memoirs, we get to see their warts and all destiny from all sides until they become entwined forever.
Johnny McKnight’s revival of Jackson’s 2010 mini series in waiting stays true to its overriding ridiculousness. As it relishes its own puerile drive in every line, the baroque punchlines become a mask for some long buried need to go beyond casual hook-ups and find something deeper.
This doesn’t prevent the prevailing idiocy of each of those on stage to burst through. Lewie Watson’s Tom is a lolloping but likeable buffoon and Rebecca Wilkie his sharper but just as ludicrous opposite. In short, from the moment they leap into the sack together, they are made for each other. Upstaging both, however, is Julie Wilson Nimmo, whose turbo charged hippy chick Sasha seems to have been beamed down from another planet.
The world has changed alongside the social and sexual mores that go with it since Jackson’s creation was last seen on stage. In McKnight’s hands, however, his play remains a refreshingly old school and increasingly tender confection. For the two people at its heart, the future might just start here.
The Herald, June 6th 2026
Ends
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