Animation, mime and speech come together in this neat one-man show about love at first-sight going wrong. My Paper Girlfriend details the ill-fated attempts of the hapless, romantic Wesley Griffiths falling in love and the simple life he craves is reflected in a simple, naïve plot and sparse black and white animations.
it’s the warmth from Wesley Griffith’s delivery that lifts the show above the mediocre
Kicking off in a park, animated beautifully through a backdrop of Dean Gibson’s illustrations, it follows typical romantic comedy tropes. A chance meeting with the girl of his dreams leaves protagonist Wesley Griffiths hopelessly in love, the only trouble being she doesn’t turn up to the first date. All standard stuff, but it turns out the object of Griffith’s affections is not all that it seems (although sharp-eyed observers may have guessed this from the title).
The recognisable plots and scenarios hardly break the mould, but it’s the warmth from Wesley Griffith’s delivery that lifts the show above the mediocre. His gentle and charismatic character conveys an innovative story although which can, at times, be tricky to follow. Whilst the sense of riddle about Griffith’s girlfriend is central to the plot, it could have been made more explicit as it wasn’t clear to the audience and, for some time, the mystery turned in bewilderment.
Much promise was shown in One Man and his Griff’s theatre debut. Only 35 minutes long, the semi-serious message showing the lengths people will go to find ‘the one’ gave promise for a longer outing next time.
