Edinburgh Fringe date for Chichester’s Sarah Cameron-West

SussexWorld

Chichester’s Sarah Cameron-West, a former student at Westbourne House School, is looking forward to an Edinburgh summer with her one-woman show KAREN which comes promised as ‘female Peepshow meets The Office.’

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06today to be speaking to Sarah Cameron-West from Chichester, who is heading to the Edinburgh

00:12Fringe with a show that you've written, and a really important show that emerged post-Covid.

00:19You fed up waiting for the phone to ring, you decided you were going to create opportunity

00:24and shove it in your own path. So what's the show all about? And it's called Karen, isn't

00:29it?

00:30Absolutely. The show is called Karen and it's a one-woman comedy show set. We open with

00:37our protagonist, who gets dumped on her 30th birthday by her long-term boyfriend, Joe,

00:43midway through a calippo. And things go from bad to worse.

00:47Why a calippo?

00:48It just resonated with me. I saw an image of her in a raincoat, with a calippo, at Olden

00:56Towers. I don't know what it was. It was a bolt from the blue. And I went, that's the

00:59opening scene. And it's a great way to start.

01:04So she's dumped. What happens next then?

01:07Yeah. So essentially, and things go from bad to worse, because it turns out her boyfriend

01:11Joe has been having an affair with her arch nemesis, Karen.

01:17And the cherry on top is they all work in the same office. So it's, honestly, it's a

01:23bit sort of, you're dealing with heartbreak whilst having to maintain looking professional.

01:30So there's elements of the style of peep show and the office, I suppose. The comedy of that

01:39dealing with colleagues you find tough, whilst also dealing with the heartbreak of someone

01:43you love being in the office.

01:44Are we going to like her? Are we going to feel sorry for her?

01:47We will.

01:47I think you like the protagonist, but it's completely up to you how you feel. What a lot

01:54of people, we've done a few interviews post-show since it's been running. And a lot of people

02:00say it feels like they've come out of a boxing match. One minute they're laughing hysterically,

02:07the next minute they're crying. They never sit still. And it's only 50 minutes. So it's

02:12a very fast paced up and down and you really follow her on that healing coaster.

02:19You were saying, what's so intriguing, I think if you see a one woman show and it's being

02:23performed by the writer, there's a little bit of assumption, is this you? And to an

02:27extent it is, isn't it? There's an element of you.

02:30I think so. I think it's always important for a writer to start from a grain of truth.

02:36It then just allows you to write with a sense of integrity and truthfulness for your character.

02:43And that doesn't mean just because I haven't been to space, I can't write about space.

02:48But if you can write from a kernel of truth, I think that really helps. So, I mean, obviously

02:55everyone's experienced heartbreak. And I myself, I'm 27. So I'm coming up to 30. And I definitely

03:02feel that that ticking time bomb of approaching 30 and what that has to mean for your career,

03:09for your family life, as do many, many young women. That societal pressure of life has to

03:17be achieved by 30. So I wanted to push that into a narrative. And really, it just snowballed.

03:27I just thought it would be the setup of Karen is essentially it's a one sided conversation

03:36with different characters. So I engage the audience, my characters are members of the

03:42audience. So Fred, if you come to Edinburgh, you might get picked on. But the best thing about it

03:49is I wanted to bring in audience interaction, but take away the fear that you have to say the

03:54perfect thing as an audience member. I do all the talking for us both. The conversation is inferred.

04:01So I go, you know, Stacey, he, he's dumped me. And I go, I know, I can't believe it. How could

04:07he? No, I didn't say that. I said this and said, so it sounds like a two sided conversation. So

04:16essentially going from that, I was always fascinated with how far could you go

04:21with a one sided conversation, and it still be clear to the audience. So in 2021, I wrote as a

04:29monologue, and for a competition, and luckily, it was one of the winners. So I got to perform

04:35it at the White Bear in Kennington. And that was my first experience of it. And actually,

04:40that monologue is the final 10 minutes of the show, which is this ultimate office explosion,

04:48where she finally stands up for herself to Karen, the woman her ex is having the affair with,

04:56she finally stands up to her ex. And I think that was a very important moment for me. It's,

05:01it's all about standing up for yourself. And finally, how you've got to own your emotions,

05:07you've got to face them, you can't just squash them down, because they'll pop up in other areas

05:13of your life. And it starts in Edinburgh, then on August the 1st. Sarah, really lovely to speak

05:21to you. Congratulations on the piece and good luck with it. Thank you so much. Well, thank you.

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