Sarah Cameron-West has already blown people away at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 and is returning to London with her solo comedy performance as the protagonist in a story of an office ripe with doomed love affairs and office politics.
With rave reviews and packed theatres Sarah has come a long way since graduating from Drama School. Over the Shoulder caught up with the writer and star of the one-woman hit as she was preparing to return to The Other Palace Theatre.
Congratulations on your one-woman show KAREN, coming to The Other Palace Theatre in March. What inspired you to create this show and was it a long process?
It was incredibly organic. I wrote KAREN on my phone initially as a 10-minute sketch in 2021 for the Velvet Smokes Project Passion monologue competition.
You know when you’re walking past someone in the train station and you hear a stranger say, “you’ve cheated on me, Darren.”
You think wow, what a tough conversation to have and straight away you know who the key players are. I took that as the theme and then investigated how far I could push it. I sent it to the competition, then didn’t think any more of it.
It was selected as one of the winners which meant I got to perform it at the White Bear in Kennington. I’ve never been so scared in my life because not only had I never done a one woman show, but it was also all my own writing in one long monologue, plus I was performing it on my own. I thought it was funny, but you never know.
Then I thought what about the Edinburgh Fringe. How could I get a play up there?
This was in the March, and I thought there’s no chance in hell you’re going to get a slot as acts are booked in December of the previous year. I started ringing around venues I had heard of, and I got lucky with Greenside who gave me a two-week slot.
Then they asked me what the show was about and all I had was the 10-minute sketch, so I made it up on the fly and convinced them that I was funny and that the show was going to be great!
I then had to get on and write it.
Has the show changed much from its original concept?
The show is always changing. Even now, having done it in Edinburgh 2024 it’s like a Rubik’s cube. You’re always trying to get just that little bit closer to the perfect version.
I have to say, this is the final version now, because excitingly, Chloe Nelkin is printing the script, so this must be my final idea.
Do you have a favourite section in the show?
I think my favourite section, without spoiling it too much, is the bit that jumps between a red-lighting section and regular lighting. I thought it’d be funny to see what she says in this reality lighting and then what she means in this red light. It would be interesting to illustrate what’s going on in her head when she’s speaking to Karen, her arch nemesis.
It’s my favourite bit for two reasons.
One, because it’s the most amazing acting exercise to go from one extreme to another. It’s so fun. Second because every audience is different. Sometimes you get a quiet audience but as they come to understand the story the “red scene” is the bit that always gets the biggest laughs. If it’s a quiet start, I think after the red scene I’ll have them, so, it’s always my safety blanket.
Do you think that comedy and tragedy are two sides of the same coin?
Absolutely. I think they only heighten one another. I don’t think you can make comedy without tragedy because half of the things that people find funny is to see someone in a spot of jeopardy, trying to overcome it. I think having these two intense emotions side by side really bring each other out.
Equally with tragedy, it’s part of the human condition that when people are going through something, really suffering, we can’t help but try and find some light. If someone’s having a really bad day, you’re trying to cheer them up with a with a joke.
Are you like your character in the show in any way?
It’s a bit of a split because some of my friends would say, you’re not like her at all, and others would be, are you even acting?
Because it’s my show I was trying to showcase what I could do as an actor. I started to pick up on stuff that I knew I could do well, that comes very naturally and part of that is when I’m telling a story I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic. There are elements that are absolutely me, and a lot of my mannerisms are in there.
I hope that I navigate life with a bit more tact than she does!
What I love about her is she’s a bit of a loser yet she’s so sweet and she can’t help but get things wrong. I don’t think I always fall into that, but I think it’s a version of myself.
It was a very personal journey for me because I was hopeless at setting boundaries and speaking up for myself. This show is all about the protagonist learning to do that.
What’s the last thing you do before you step on stage?
For Karen, I’m holding a Calippo lolly before I go on because the first scene is me eating one, so I tend to take a deep breath and then eat a bit of the calippo. That’s my mantra now.
I don’t know whether I will be a diva now and demand a Calippo before I go on in every show I ever do in the future!
Your director Evie Townsend says that this show is like a modern-day Bridget Jones. What film/theatre show would you describe it as?
It was a review that described it as a modern-day Bridget Jones.
I was chuffed. It’s crazy to be compared with shows I admire. Another review said it sits between Fleabag and Peep Show.
The humour is quite Peep Show, I suppose. It’s a bit of Motherland, a bit of Fleabag, a bit of Peep Show, a bit of Bridget Jones.
I admire art and I love it when the reviewers come up with different references because I think it’s hard to see your work objectively.
I am looking forward to hearing what you think of it.
Beside yourself, what celebrity would you like to see have a go at the role?
Oh my god! I think I’d combust if Phoebe Waller-Bridge or Sharon Horgan or Michaela Coel played my character.
I think I’d die if any of them came and sat in the audience, and I saw them.
Who is the funniest person you know?
My mum. I love that woman more than life but she’s not of this planet. She’s produces comedic gold every day, and she doesn’t even try.
For example, she puts her credit card in her shoe because she thinks it’s safer there. I’m like, you wear pumps!
My mum hands down, or my brother, he’s funny. He gives these one-line zingers. He has the whole family in fits of laughter.
I’m quite over expressive, I like telling the whole story whereas my brother will sit there with a slight smirk and then come out with a perfect line.
What’s the best advice you have been given?
“To do it yourself “
People are like, “no, it’s really important not to do everything yourself,” but I think when you’re an actor and you want to get out there and show people who you are and what you can bring to the table, you’ve got to do it yourself.
You can’t wait for someone to give you an opportunity. I mean, 0.0001 percent of people get noticed by a Steven Spielberg who sees your face and wants to make you a star. That never happens unless you’re one of the lucky few, in which case, God bless you.
For most people, it’s hard work and you’re constantly jumping through hoops. I thought a drama scholarship to university was making it and then I thought it was getting into drama school.
After graduating came COVID and nobody wanted to know, so I thought I’d better crack on with this myself.
I began writing and putting myself out there. I put on my own theatre nights in London, invited agents to come see it and kept pushing even when it’s exhausting and you feel like nothing’s happening.
Another phrase I like is “Would you trade places with yourself a year ago? If the answer is no, then you’ve made progress.”
Do you have a life motto?
Tell them how you feel.
My cousin gave me that and I’ve tried to live by it, even when it’s hard.
And of course, “to do it yourself!”
Sarah has unquestionably done it by herself by writing and performing her hilarious one-woman show KAREN. We can’t wait to see it and will try to come up with some clever cultural comparisons that will meet Sarah’s approval.
If not, an original comedic masterpiece that defies comparison will have to do!