While it’s true unfinished business can sometimes haunt you, Regan Macaulay never lost any sleep over The Paradise Lust Romance Series. In fact, after penning the final draft of her comedy, the writer/director can boast of completing a school project her professors at Ryerson never would have expected to evolve this far.

The spoofy narrative began as a one-act radio drama assignment, which she co-wrote with three other students in 1994. Years later, when her mother encouraged her to keep developing the story, Macaulay stared down a window of opportunity she couldn’t resist: a 24-hour playwright competition.

“I wrote a second act of The Paradise Lust Romance Series called Lord of the Flings,” she explains. “I wasn’t expecting to win but I wanted to force myself to write a second act.”

The Whitby area native did not take home a prize but her efforts paid off, as she would later collaborate with a Triple Take Productions collaborator to author a third act and complete the play. The Paradise Lust Romance Series is a parody of schmaltzy Harlequin novels. As the show opens, a writer is stumped for ideas leaving a trio of characters stranded for a storyline. They try to help the writer but their endeavours are futile. By Act II, the characters, dissatisfied with the plot, make a move to break away and convince the writer to change genres. When the writer does so in Act III, fear takes over and the characters believe they will be lost, or worse yet—die. Unique in its staging, the production goes against convention by putting the audience inside the set while action unfolds around the room.

Producer Regan Macaulay knows that good characters will lead a story to places a writer wouldn't think of going.

A devoted worshipper of off-the-wall sketch comedy and inspired by ground breaking troupes such as Monty Python and Kids In The Hall, Regan Macaulay doesn’t hide the fact that she has never finished a Harlequin novel but values the publishing vehicle for its creative direction.

“It’s definitely escapism and I can appreciate that,” she muses. “I think it’s quite silly and superficial. If anyone’s a serious writer I’d hope they move beyond that.”

That’s the beauty of The Paradise Lust Romance Series. Never does the play make critical commentary of the romance genre. The playwright addresses more momentous questions through the four characters that drive the story.

“How does a writer write,” Macaulay clarifies of her prominent motif. “Writers do interact in their head and the characters do take on a life of their own. Other writers I’ve talked to say [the characters] often dictate how things will go. They kind of take over for themselves and the writer ends up doing things they didn’t at least consciously know would happen.”