Writer and performer Sam Ipema talks upcoming show ‘Dear Annie, I Hate You’: “Had I not been diagnosed, I highly doubt I’d find myself here putting on a play in London”

Following its successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the London scene welcomes the arrival of this dark comedy exploring the author’s real-ljfe journey upon suffering from an aneurysm. Guillermo Nazara chats with the playwright, to learn more about the creation of a show where positivity and inspiration are the brains of its outfit.

How does it feel to be finally bringing this show to London audiences?

Absolutely incredible. The team and I are giddy with anticipation to show the city of London what we’re currently cooking up together!

A powerful subject with an even more powerful message. Is it daunting to portray such a strong topic onstage, especially when it’s part of your personal journey?

This is such a great question. Yes, and no, I think. In many ways, yes- it feels like the most vulnerable thing you can do is to share the events that happened in your life from your perspective and let an audience be both witness and judge on it. It is incredibly intimidating at times. But I often feel like that’s the best part – the times where I tell my team “ahh, I can’t share that bit on stage!” and they encourage me to are usually the moments that people end up relating the most to. So I’ve started to find that task a bit less daunting.

For a long time, I wasn’t convinced that the story was really worth sharing. I’d known so many other people who had been through such grander ruckus in their lives that mine felt minuscule in comparison – since I’d managed to make it out ‘okay’. So now, I honestly just find the whole experience genuinely cathartic. To let people into the wake of the disaster this moment created and left in my life at the time, in order to hopefully make way for others to process their own, is quite a nice experience in performing and creating the show. It’s what I would have needed at the time, and it feels good just to give that back now.

What led you to bring your own story to the stage?

I usually try to answer this question by trying to be a bit clever and say something inspiring, but the simple truth is that I came up with the concept when I was doing my acting training, and I wanted an A on the assignment. So, I figured that if I talked about my brain surgery and made it funny, no teacher could give me a bad grade for putting that on stage – though they did give me a B, and I’m still bitter about that. However, it made way to realize that there was something special here.

But honestly, it was when I came across a reddit feed where other people with similar conditions or diagnoses had nicknamed their conditions— “Hodge” for Hodgkins Lymphoma, “Annie” for their own brain aneurysms”, “Mel” for melanoma, etc. That’s when I knew there was a concept that needed to be shared.

Which themes have you attempted to explore through this narrative?

Ugh, everything. Just kidding. I think it’s really about denial and accepting the things you can’t control in your life. The team and I have always been focused on making it a piece that inspires people to get up and do something exciting – because that’s what the piece has made me do with my life. Had I not been diagnosed, I highly doubt I’d find myself here putting on a play in London. So, I think we really try to hone in on these life changing experiences and how within the good, the bad, and the ugly parts, we find the ability to move on and to change from them. And that though change can be scary, it can also lead to great things.

Tell us more about the approach to the show. Why go for a dark comedy?

Oh, I think for this show you almost have to. The subject itself is so incredibly dark at times that you need the humor to balance lightness with the bleaker moments.

It’s also how I, at least, feel like I deal with everything in my life. Even in the worst moments, I think that we’re looking for the lightness and the comedy in order to deal with it and process it.

Also, the premise is inherently funny: it’s a 20 year-old diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. There’s no way I was going to deal with that maturely at the time. My first question to my surgeon after I was diagnosed and had to set a date for brain surgery was: “Can I still go on Spring Break?”.

What challenges have you found in this piece from both a creative and performing perspective?

This is another great question, and the answer to is: many. It took years to even get the concept for this piece out of me, because I was convinced it wasn’t interesting enough to create. And even still, lots of time in the rehearsal room is often spent with the team pulling bits out of me and convincing me we should put them on stage. From a creative and producing aspect, it’s an incredibly absurd idea so there was really no option to get the show off the ground other than raising the funding ourselves, I think. It’s one of those things I think you really have to see to believe, which is what is so special about it – but it definitely creates its own challenges in that regard.

From a performing perspective, it’s just a joy really. I love being onstage, it’s one of the greatest love affairs of my life. I would say the one challenge was originally being self-conscious that, if I cried in the piece, people would think it was me, Sam, not the performer – and that I actually was not over the events in the piece. But the interesting thing in the Edinburgh run proved that this wasn’t the case, and that audiences were very happy for us to take them there. So that’s something we’re having a lot more fun exploring this time around: how to take the ups and downs a lot further and much more of a ride all around.

Overall, it’s just a joy. The creatives are a family – and my co-star, Eleanor, is simply magnificent. If nothing else, just come to see her work her magic.

Why come see Dear Annie, I Hate You?

It will make you laugh and cry and it will make you feel viscerally alive, I think. That’s definitely a reason to come.

Plus, we’re partnering with a fantastic charity who will be supporting and sharing their own work outside in the foyer during our run. So come to at least to check that out. Their stories and the artwork they do in response to their own experiences are incredible.

If you need a reason beyond that, the creatives on board have put their heart and soul into this. You could watch the show multiple times, just watching one of the aspects of their design elements, and you would gain something new each time.

All pictures credit to Alec Brenner.

Dear Annie, I Hate You will play at London’s Riverside Studios from 7 May to 1 June. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara