It’s ticking over into the last week of Fringe. Everyone is either dying of a cold caught from a magician they met in a bar, or racing to see that one show selling out faster than you can spend your whole bank account at the kebab shop next to your venue. But one former Footlight is embarking on a whole new adventure entirely: “I’m pretty exhausted. I’ve had two weeks of being hungry and not sleeping that well. My body’s saying ‘now you can crash,’ but I can’t.”

“My body’s saying ‘now you can crash,’ but I can’t”

Sameera Bhalotra Bowers has just finished starring in a two week run of Penelope Quadrangle and the Meaning of Friendship here in Edinburgh. Her speedy return home means we’ve had to do a cheeky Covid-style Zoom call before an afternoon filled with: “flyering around town for a few hours and learning lines”. An incredible feat considering her intense stint in Edinburgh, and the fact that flyering for even five minutes can be excruciating.

Despite this, Sameera assures me that her while time in Edinburgh was: “supposed to be really stressful, it was a lot easier than we thought it would be – most of us had done the show twice before.” The big following Penelope Quadrangle had cultivated in both its ADC and Corpus Playroom run followed its team to Edinburgh, receiving “twenty audience reviews that were really positive,” and even standing ovations on a couple of nights.

“It was a lot easier than we thought it would be – most of us had done the show twice before”

The chaos of Penelope Quadrangle’s plot seemed to occasionally mirror the cast’s experience at Fringe. All of their props were left at home on the day of their first performance, a mishap realised only five minutes before they went on stage. This, rather ingeniously, resulted in some fake blood being used for wine, and a piano stool with some cardboard for a table. Sameera also relates a classic Fringe tale: having to reblock chunks of the show in a tiny flat after you realise that the venue you’ve booked was nothing like how you thought it would be.“Once we got used to it after one or two days, it felt better.”

After returning home, Sameera is preparing for her one woman comedy show What Is Going On?, which began last year in the Corpus Playroom. She promises: “puppetry, poetry, stand-up, PowerPoint” in a three night run at the Camden Fringe. The transition from Edinburgh to Camden was “generally stressful,” but it was aided by her familiarity with Penelope Quadrangle and the variety of support that Sameera has received. “Managing to get funding for both of them made the whole thing less stressful. It’s taken off some of the mental load.” She also credits her recent graduation for making the world now seem wide open for her to pursue her comedic passions without dissertations and supervisions blocking her way. Her support network, found in her producer, Margaret Saunderson, and Dom Andrew, the director of the original run of What’s Going On?, have also helped her remain grounded.

“What Is Going On? is set to be a show for all those feeling lost in their lives”

To Sameera, Camden feels like the natural step forward: “after the Corpus run, people said ‘you should take this show somewhere else’. I want to try a comedy career, and it seems like the kind of thing that – if I put it off – I could lose [creative] momentum for.” However, her nerves are also natural: “there’s a lot of things I have to do for the Camden show. Relearning the whole script in three days, counting on the fact that my Bluetooth PowerPoint clicker is going to work. There’s a lot of things to balance in Camden with flyering, publicity and reviewers.” In Cambridge, space and time were abundant, but at Fringe, Sameera has only one chance to tech, which is any performer’s worst nightmare.

Despite all of this, she is deeply passionate about the show, especially considering its themes of: “graduating and trying to figure out what’s next in life”. I agree when she notes how “annoying [it is] in comedy when the message feels contrived or people try to add something emotional at the end,” but listening to Sameera now, these ideas feel particularly genuine and poignant, especially now that I’m facing my own graduation next year. What Is Going On? is set to be a show for all those feeling lost in their lives, whether it be in the midst of job applications, final dissertations or panic masters, written by an eloquent, enthusiastic, and talented comedian.

What Is Going On? by Sameera Bhalotra Bowers is showing at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden at 7PM from the 21-23rd August.