| What: Your Perfect Life Where and when: The Masque, Muizenberg from April 23 to 25, 2026 (there was also a season at The Drama Factory in April) Written and performed by: Erika Breytenbach and Faeron Wheeler Director: Sue Diepeveen Bookings: For for The Masque via https://www.dramafactory.co.za/whatson#16April26 |
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 – 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗘𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗮 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗮𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿
In 2019, Erika Breytenbach and Faeron Wheeler wrote a play – a comedy-drama – about two women, who were once besties. Their friendship falls apart when Karlien (Erika Breytenbach) marries young and has a family. Caitlyn (Faeron Wheeler) feels betrayed. They had plans – to travel and have fun. Caitlyn invests everything in her high powered career. But expectations and dreams do not necessarily align. In Your Perfect Life, Karlien (with a brr as in the Afrikaans pronunciation) and Caitlyn connect at their twenty year school reunion. It’s a showdown – with memories, reminisces, regrets and a brutal audit of their lives. The play has been on in a 2026 revival season in Cape Town, at The Drama Factory and Masque in Muizenberg. The Masque season finishes on Saturday – April 25. The play has deepened and become more nuanced since its first incarnation.
Loved it. Very moved. Go and see it.
Bravo to Erika, Faeron and Sue Diepeveen (director AND owner of the Drama Factory).
Your Perfect Life received two Standard Bank Ovation Awards at National Arts Festival Makhanda – one award was for a live staging (2019) and an award for a digital screening (2020), during the pandemic. I saw the play on numerous occasions and was interested to see this revival staging. I was expecting it to be a period play. It was first staged in 2019 and the references are 2019 – subtly. But, it is does not come across as “dated”. It feels very now. Women are perhaps even more pressurised into procreating and going into a traditional family set-up. Faeron Wheeler as Caitlyn, evokes this as she rants to her ex bestie who apparently has it all. The rant was there in 2019 but in 2026, it has expanded. Breytenbach brings in a brittle edge to Karlien, which undercuts her as a ditsy archetype – with a “perfect life”. She is unhinged and skittish, a woman at the end of the tether of her perfect life. Caitlyn is also unhinged in her perfect life. They are tethered by their disappointments, bonding in a pity party. I won’t tell you what happens., Ultimately, there is a re kindling of their friendship. That leaves us feeling inspired. We need that. Friendship and caring transcends so much in life and we need to remember that. Powerful performances by Wheeler and Breytenbach.
As Sue Diepeveen the director said after the performance when I was discussing the tweaks in the production; Caitlyn has become harder, tougher. Karlien has more of a backstory as protagonist in terms of her background and her choices.
Beyond the text, it is not so much what they say, but what they don’t say – the awkward pauses, silences and gaps between them. They talk over each other and at each other. It is funnier and sadder. The physical comedy has become heightened and teased out by Diepeveen, with Wheeler and Breytenbach truly inhabiting these complex women, rather than “performing” them.
It is wonderful to see how this play has developed – beyond an issue play. From the get go, it was poignant and funny. With this revival, the protagonists, are foregrounded, with all their flaws and quirks. They are getting across the “issues” but in this staging, their vulnerability and grief has been ratcheted up. It is funnier but it is also more emotional and we see this on their faces and their bodies as they commune on the bench, outside the reunion, as they excavate their younger selves.
✳ Faeron Wheeler and Erika Breytenbach in Your Perfect Life.
