Review: My Romantic History ****

For a theatre fan, September marks the return of a love lost. August is a quiet month in the arts regionally, with the collective community relocating to Edinburgh for the annual festival.

If the result is that the Scottish city continues to send our way these perfectly formed theatrical gems, then a quiet August is a price worth paying.

DC Jackson is still learning his craft as a playwright, only two years from his debut, but if this is the result after such a short apprenticeship, I look forward to seeing his work when he is more developed.

The playwright starts My Romantic History with a premise revealed in a killer opening line – "If you haven't met someone by the time you graduate, you're going to marry some idiot from your work".

What follows is 90 minutes of pure pleasure as Tom walks a path that seems to lead inexorably to him marrying some idiot from work.

The script sizzles, the acting is intensely likeable, the design a triumph. In an impressively bold, if not entirely original move, halfway through Jackson spins the story on its head and we see events played out from the perspective of the "idiot" Tom is destined to end up with – and realise that perhaps Tom is the idiot – or perhaps nobody is, or perhaps everybody.

Like an early Nick Hornby with more bite, or Irvine Welsh with more heart, DC Jackson is a writer to watch and this play is a hugely enjoyable slice of romantic life in your early thirties.

To Oct 2.