The outrageously hilarious show KAREN will be embracing London as it heads for The Other Palace from 19 – 24 March, following its hit run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Centred around a storm of heartbreak, this uproarious show tackles the internal turmoil of our Protagonist as she journeys through a chaos-filled office narrative and reaches a cathartic finale. Shattering the fourth wall, this critically acclaimed hit follows the Protagonist as an unceremonious birthday break-up sees her ex dating her office nemesis: Karen. We sit down with Sarah Cameron-West, (Anansi Boys, Amazon Prime; Walk Home, Josie Copeland) creator and performer of KAREN.
How did the idea for this show come about?
I just wrote the start of a sketch in my Notes app exploring comedy through a one-sided conversation which I then submitted to Velvet Smoke’s Project Passion competition where the finalists would get to perform their work at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington. This meant that I had to turn my thoughts into a coherent 10-minute sketch and I wanted to explore this idea of an emotional explosion in a professional setting paired with a more heartfelt analysis of why our Protagonist had this outburst and the difficulty in dealing with big feelings if you don’t have the luxury of therapy or a great support network. I was thrilled to be selected and they paired me up with my director Evie Ayres-Townshend who is still KAREN’s director. Karen then sat on the backburner in 2022 and it was only in March 2023 that I thought about submitting it to the Edinburgh Fringe (despite not having written any more than those 10 minutes). However, I threw myself into the last remaining slot at Greenside Riddles Court and took May to write the whole show and June to rehearse with a preview in the beginning of July. The 10-minutes I wrote are the finale of the performance so I essentially just needed to start working backwards what would get her to that point.
How important is it to showcase these raw and authentic displays of female emotion?
I think it is absolutely crucial to show raw and authentic displays of emotions theatrically regardless of gender as it allows people to connect to the truth of what it is to be human. However, female rage specifically, is at the core of the play’s identity and impact. I say female rage instead of just rage because rage is received and responded to in a harshly gendered way by society. For example, there seems to be a societal double standard in the language we use when describing the same behaviour in genders: a man is assertive, a woman is a rude. A man can react, a woman can only overreact. A man can be angry, a woman is hysterical. Men, generally speaking, are given the space and permission to express their anger. Although still perceived problematic at times, rage for men is an accepted performance of feeling whereas women are all too often met by restrictive expectations and conditions to their emotional expressions. The female rage celebrated in KAREN asks an audience to embrace mess and big feelings in a cathartic way, confronting society’s call women to be for polite, restrained and palatable. Our Protagonist goes the entire play trying to appease those around her and squash down her feelings, yet what we discover is that the only way to process your emotions is to tackle them head on and for Protagonist, it’s a case of the final straw breaking the camel’s back that leads her into a liberating explosion.
How different is it staging a one woman show compared to an ensemble show?
I must confess that I couldn’t have done it without my wonderful and inspiring director Evie who made rehearsal a joy from start to finish. I feel very lucky that Evie instinctively knew what I was trying to say with the piece and understood my humour in order to know where to really push it in the show. The biggest challenge with a one-person show is that you have to generate all of the energy on your own unlike an ensemble show where you can rely on each other to keep the pace, the fun and the freshness of the show. Every great actor says acting is about reacting and how you should never be a “samovar” – someone that just creates all of their own energy rather than engaging with the actors around you. But how can you react when you are on your own? For me, I ended up writing out the entire show with all of the other character’s lines so that I knew intrinsically how I needed to respond. So I am reacting, you just can’t hear the cue. I then use my imagination by bringing the audience in as my characters and as it’s a different audience every time, it always brings something new and unique to every performance.
The show has been likened to Peep Show and Fleabag – what are some shows or creatives that inspired the creation of KAREN?
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is my absolute hero so to have KAREN likened to Fleabag felt completely surreal. The same with Peep Show. I adore both shows because the language is so witty and unique. In terms of inspiration, Phoebe is a big inspiration for me but so is Sharon Horgan and Michaela Cole. They are amazing role models and create such visceral, funny, tragic work that has people on the edge of their seat and utterly enraptured by their characters, warts and all. They also showed me that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – regular, everyday life is funny and hard so start writing about that. It is also what makes their characters so relatable because we can see ourselves in them. KAREN is about our Protagonist who gets dumped. We’ve all faced heartbreak so I wanted to write about that. Then you just start turning up the heat and think “how can I make it worse?” – she’s dumped on her 30th birthday. Worse? Her long term boyfriend has been cheating on her with her arch nemesis: Karen. Even worse? They all work in the same office. I think once you have an electric scenario, the play starts writing itself.
What do you hope audiences take away from seeing the show?
On one level I hope that people really enjoy the character and the fun of the show – it’s silly, it’s camp, it’s energetic. But I also hope that they take away the message that you can’t escape your feelings – you have to deal with them. If you squash them down, they will manifest in another parts of your life. The only way to heal is by experiencing them and only then can you move forward. It may be hard and at time scary to deal with but you will feel liberated and at peace when you do.
What are some of your favourite shows playing in London right now?
Anything on at Soho Theatre is always brilliant. It was a real privilege to be a part of the Soho Theatre Edinburgh Labs and witness so many creatives working on their own shows and so many of what I saw up in Edinburgh has now transferred there and rightly so. Clementine by Rosalie Minnitt is a supersonic and hysterical show coined “Bridgerton-meets-Gen-Z-Jane-Austen-on-Adderall” by Fringe Biscuit and I couldn’t agree more. It’s one of those shows your face hurts from laughing and smiling so much. Also Steve Porter’s How To Flirt by Daisy Doris May is an absolutely iconic show where we follow our loveable host Steve (Doris May in drag) who educates us on how to date successfully. I also would really recommend Cruel Intentions and We’ll Have Nun Of It which are both showing at The Other Palace as they are exceptional musicals with such talented casts.