It’s their 20-year reunion and Karlien and Caitlyn are dreading the “So, what have you been doing with your life?” questions. One has a family, the other a career. Neither is sure they have what they want.

Fresh from the National Arts Festival Fringe and winning a Standard Bank Ovation Award, Your Perfect Life is heading to Cape Town. Come and relive the highs and lows of a high school reunion with Caitlyn and Karlien. The story is set at a 20-year high school reunion and two women – a stay-at-home mother and the career-focused singleton – bump into each other. Seeing them now, it’s hard to imagine how they used to be best friends. However, as they reminisce about their high school years, ex-boyfriends and all the fun they had, it becomes almost hard to imagine why they haven’t kept in touch. Your Perfect Life is a poignant and honest look at how life can take unexpected turns and how society judges us for dealing with it the best way we can. Audiences at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) called the peice “thought provoking” and “wonderfully funny”.

The idea for this play first sparked when the two real-life friends, Erika Marais and Faeron Wheeler, were struck time and again by how close they were despite leading such vastly different lives. This has often led them to reflect on how society judges women for not managing to do it all. It’s a conversation the pair have had many times and turning it into a play seemed like the natural progression. As a testament to women for women, director Sue Diepeveen was brought in to help steer Your Perfect Life from conversations over catch-up coffees to a thoughtful, funny and truthful take on women’s lives. We all know that other people’s lives aren’t perfect, but we can’t help thinking that somehow, they are.

Audience Responses

My first visit to Drama Factory and it was great. Such a lovely venue. Thoroughly enjoyed the show, which is not surprising because I have known both Erika and Fae for quite a while and I know what they are capable of! If you are Sue, hopefully we'll get a chance to discuss the piece when I come through to see 2Tango later this month: I have some thoughts. And thank you for helping to keep theatre alive! Raymond. :-) ps I love the cards in the bottle!!

We had a lovely night out at The Drama Factory and watched “Your Perfect Life”. The show was well recieved by the audience who couldn’t stop laughing and giggling at the thé quirky real life moments that we all can easily relate to. The performance was engaging and had me hooked from start to finish, the only note I heard was that we wish it wasn’t over so quickly. I look forward to whatever the next project is that the duo bring us and envy those that get to watch Your Perfect Life for the first time.

It was delightful and a amazing performance and show of both actresses! Well done Erika and Fay! You guys ROCK!!

Great play about a topic that many will relate to. Script for funny, serious, poignant and acted very well.

As I absolutely love the atmosphere at this little theatre and hope to make it a regular venue, please change my name on your mailing list. Nobody knows me by “Antoinette”, only Government Services, everyone knows me as “ Toni”

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