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by Sam Mercury & Alten Wilmot, directed by Vanessa Spence

Unwrap Theatre, Studio Theatre, Centre in the Square, Kitchener

October 1–3, 2026

Amanda: “What master foolery is this?”

Kitchener’s esteemed MT Space is currently presenting the world premiere of Unwrap Theatre’s production of mixed(er)by Sam Mercury and Alten Wilmot. The play has had a long period of development and could use much more development before it reaches a satisfactory state. Mercury and Wilmot deserve credit for trying to write a comedy about biracialism instead of the usual crisis of identity play, though they don’t ignore the central figure’s crisis of identity. Yet, with too many unexplained motives and improbable situations, the play is modelled too much on television sitcoms as is the style of acting.

The action is set in the present in Waterloo, but despite a few local references, could be set anywhere in Canada. The story takes place on the first day home of Sam (played by Mercury), daughter of a White mother Rose and a Black father Kevin. Sam has finished university in BC and has just returned from four months in St. Vincent, where she was researching her father’s ancestry. It is also her 24th birthday, and her parent has her friends, the White Alexis and the Black Amanda, are attempting to give Sam a surprise party.

As usual in plays about family gatherings, there are secrets that come out. For Sam’s parents and friends, the prime secret is the party itself. A secondary secret is that Sam’s father is going to have hip surgery in a week. Sam has the largest number of secrets. She has told no one that she has a White boyfriend, Cameron, who is a comic book addict as is she. She has never told her Alexis that she also has a Black female friend. And she has not told her father that she wants to go back to university to work on a Masters in Caribbean Studies because she knows he will disapprove of paying for more study that will not lead to a job.

Sam’s biggest secret, though, is that she has grown discontented with her life. Being biracial, she feels she is too White for Black people and too Black for White people, despite the obvious fact that she presently has both Black and White friends. How Sam comes to feel she belongs is the point of the play.

The story sounds promising, but the execution by Mercury and Wilmot sabotages its effectiveness and the largely underacted performances of the cast undermines the show’s impact even further. Who is going to carry boxes where, who has whose phone when and who is going to get the birthday cake are questions that take up too much time and ultimately don’t make sense.

Who is going to carry boxes is much discussed, but Kevin should not even be considered, except that, for unknown reasons, he doesn’t want Sam to know about his hip. Joseph Njoku moves about the stage and even dances with no sign that he has any problem with hip until he or Rose mentions it, after which he moves about again with ease.

Mercury and Wilmot create a big fuss over Sam having Rose’s phone. Rose needs it supposedly because she has to make calls to organize the party. Do Kevin and she, as the older generation, not have a landline and why can’t Rose use Kevin’s phone? Rose doesn’t want Sam to look through her messages, and thus learn about the party, but Sam has already done this and, for no known reason, still does not give back the phone. After that, Mercury and Wilmot seem to forget about the issue.

As Mercury and Wilmot would have it, Rose and Kevin are not free to pick up the birthday cake for Sam from the bakery. So, they send Sam’s friend Amanda. When Amanda visits the bakery, the White baker pretends, because Amanda is Black, there is no cake. Amanda happens to run into Cameron. He says the baker is well-known as a racist and goes to pick up the cake. Why the baker succeeds in getting Cameron to fork over money is unclear since the cake is already paid for. We wonder, however, why Rose has been using this bakery, known for being both racist and unhygienic, since at least Sam’s last birthday. It’s obviously just an awkward ploy to work racism into the play, when there must be much less artificial ways to do so.

Later Amanda needs to go to the baker to retrieve the phone she accidentally left there. Suddenly, the play’s style becomes a parody of heist movies with laser beams and floor sensitivity protecting the premises. Besides its total shift away from the show’s generally realistic mode, the scene also makes the racist baker’s shop comic rather than threatening.

All the examples mentioned so far are minor examples of contradiction within the show, but these are symptoms of the show’s larger contradictions in the logic of the plot. Sam is 24, so why is she afraid to have Cameron enter the house through the front door? Can’t a male friend visit after Sam has been away for months? Then, why does Alexis, who is known to Sam’s parents, enter through Sam’s bedroom window? What’s the need for secrecy? Alexis also hasn’t seen Sam for months. Why does Sam think that Alexis and Amanda should not meet? They are both her friends. So, what’s the problem?

Too often when a character asks Sam for information, she simply makes an exasperated sigh. What Sam is hiding from everyone turns out to be nothing they cannot understand. Amanda, Sam’s most sensible friend, justifiably asks, “What master foolery is this?” and tells Sam that Sam has created her own problems by imaging myths of what Back and White should be. Amanda’s explanation deserves much more development, but apparently all Amanda has to do is say this and all Sam’s worries magically vanish.

A story so full of contradictions makes little impact. To make matters worse, Mercury and Wilmot have failed to flesh out the characters. We know each of them by only one or two external attributes. Rose can’t cook Caribbean food. Kevin has a bad hip. Cameron is a comic book nerd. Mercury and Wilmot don’t even give us much insight into Sam since, except for one outburst, she goes silent when asked what’s wrong.

Some actors can do much with so little, but with one exception, the cast members underplay their roles. As Rose, Natalie Sebastian acts as if she were acting for television and speaks only at a conversational or even sub-conversational level. I was sitting in the front row when I attended and could seldom hear what Sebastian was saying. As Sam, Mercury speaks as a somewhat louder level, but she tends to rush and even mutter her lines so that many of her comic lines have no effect.

As Cameron, Nathan Rossi could stand to speak up but he tends to make up for this with a very physical performance. As Kevin, Joseph Njoku is a calming presence though we do wish he, and the director, would remember that a man with a hip problem will hardly walk or dance the way Njoku does. Kaleigh Murphy well distinguishes her two characters of the racist baker and Alexis. It’s too bad that Murphy feels the need to overact as Alexis to do so. The overall best performance is that of Chantaine Green-Leach as Amanda. She is a fine physical actor and has a great sense of comic timing.

While the play’s comedy could certainly stand to be punched up a notch or two, so could the pace of the performance. Director Vanessa Spence allows the show to move in a languorous fashion that hardly conveys urgency or tension.

It turns out the cleverest aspect of the production is Waleed Ansari’s set design. When we enter the Studio Theatre at Centre in the Square, we see what looks like two sides of a wooden, white-washed box with two doors. This serves as the exterior of Sam’s parents’ house which then opens up to be Sam’s bedroom complete with bed. For scenes at the bakery the stage right side of the set can be folded in and a counter slid in front of it. To represent Rose and Kevin’s kitchen, the side is folded back again and the counter turned around. It’s both ingenious and attractive.

An excellent idea lies behind mixed(er) of a biracial person learning to accept who she is and, in fact, seeing her biraciality not as a burden but a benefit. The concept of proving this point by realizing the diversity of one’s friends is also good. Mercury and Wilmot simply need to concoct a plot — it could still be a surprise party — that is not so riddled with contradictions and artificial crises. This may have been the world premiere of mixed(er), but I hope Mercury and Wilmot are willing to rethink the action and fill out their characters to arrive at a comedy with greater impact.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Sam Mercury as Sam. © 2026 Unwrap Theatre.

For tickets visit: unwraptheatre.ca.