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by Marcia Johnson, directed by Vanessa Sears

Talk Is Free Theatre, UPlift Black, 12 Dunlop St East, Barrie

January 31-February 8, 2025

Beatrice: “No men can match up to your heroes”

Many attending Perfect on Paper will be familiar with Marcia Johnson’s writing, whether it is Binti’s Journey (2008) about children in Africa orphaned by AIDS or Serving Elizabeth (2020) about the representation of African people in the media. Many will therefore be surprised that Johnson has written such light-hearted, laugh-out-loud funny play as Perfect on Paper. The play began life as at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001 and then was commissioned as a radio play by CBC. The revival by Talk Is Free Theatre proves the comedy is still enjoyable and should be performed more widely.

The play focusses on Olivia, an independent, young Black woman who is an avowed feminist. She tells people she writes textbooks. Her secret is that as Gwendolyn St. Clair she writes bodice-ripping romance novels, the kind featuring shirtless men and swooning females on the covers.

As the play opens Olivia is on her way to a first date, when a man tries to snatch her purse. Olivia is knocked to the ground and suffers a concussion, but a young White man, Benjamin, foils the thief and wrests the purse from him. The young man’s kindness does not end there because he visits Olivia in hospital, brings her presents and helps her return to her home when she is discharged. Olivia can tell she’s becoming enamoured of Benjamin which angers Olivia’s former boyfriend, Robert, a successful young Black man who thinks he still has a chance with Olivia.

What makes the play so funny is that Olivia, amid the daze of medicines and painkillers, starts to imagine Benjamin as Edward, the dashing aristocratic hero of her latest novel, and her nurse Gillian as the novel’s beauteous heroine, Felicity. Scenes of Olivia’s reality alternate with scenes in the novel that mirror Olivia’s reality in the over-heated manner of romance novels. The question eventually becomes whether Olivia should marry Benjamin, the man she has surrounded with so much fantasy, or the real man Robert who loves her despite her disdain.

Johnson’s parodies of typical scenes in romance novels are hilarious, and director Vanessa Sears has managed to draw performances from Griffin Hewitt as Edward and Sydney Cochrane as Felicity that are sufficiently exaggerated but never stray over the top. In contrast with this style, Sears directs the “real” events of the play in a lively, down-to-earth manner.

The space in UPlift Black is long and narrow with the audience of 24 is arranged on three sides. Sears make full use of this space so the stage action never feels cramped. Sears has enlisted the help of David Ball as movement director. Ball invents an amusing dance to start the show that introduces us to all the actors. He minutely choreographs the purse-snatching in slow-motion and arranges the sweeping, balletic footwork and gestures of Edward and Felicity which are so comic in their studied artifice.

Helen Belay is thoroughly delightful as Olivia. Belay shows Olivia as bright and imaginative, taken aback to find that her reality with Benjamin is so much like the damsel in distress of her own romance novels. We don’t know quite what she has against Robert except that his earnestness doesn’t have the flair she seems to favour.

Griffin Hewitt is very funny as both Benjamin and Edward. As Benjamin, Hewitt brings out the gentle humour of an authentically good guy who is a bit slow to realize he is falling in love. As Edward, Hewitt displays the complete contrast of a forceful man who knows he is in love and knows how to declare it in polished prose.

Sydney Cochrane rather blends into the woodwork as the kind nurse Gillian. But as the fiery maiden Felicity she speaks in a ripe British accent and registers shock and passion in ways reminiscent of the acting in silent movie melodramas.

When we first meet the Robert of Savion Roach, Robert is already upset with Olivia’s obsession with Benjamin and her failure to recognize the strength of his own love. Beneath the hurt and frustration, however, Roach does gives us a glimpse of the more mischievous side of Robert, one we know would appeal to the someone as full of life as Olivia.

Arlene Duncan plays Olivia’s mother Beatrice, who amusingly can’t help but meddle in her daughter’s affairs. Duncan shows that Beatrice glows with so much pride about her daughter’s success that she is always on the verge of giving away Olivia’s secret identity. Duncan has Beatrice beam with the warmth of her love and scheme to do anything to help Olivia find the man who is best for her.

When Perfect on Paper premiered in 2001 it was 90 minutes long. Now the running time is 65 minutes and I can’t help but wonder what is missing. Judging from the present version what I would like to know more about is the relationship between Robert and Olivia before Benjamin rescues her. Olivia’s dislike of Robert doesn’t seem as well motivated as it could be. Otherwise, Perfect on Paper is real treat of a play that deserves to find much greater currency.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Helen Belay as Olivia; Griffin Hewitt as Benjamin, Arlene Duncan as Beatrice, Helen Belay as Olivia, Sydney Cochrane as Gillian and Savion Roach as Robert. © 2025 Matthew MacQuarrie-Cottle.

For tickets visit: www.tift.ca.