Kerry Ipema's One Woman Sex and the City show makes for a perfect night out! (Credit: Idil Sukan)
Kerry Ipema transforms Saint John into New York City in her show One Woman Sex and the City (OWSATC), channeling the infamous quartet who broke barriers in depicting of female sexuality on screen.
In a hilarious yet loving parody of the award-winning six season HBO series, she tears through the six seasons with relish and heart.
When asked about how she discovered Sex and the City, (SATC) Ipema revealed she discovered the show later in life.
“I stumbled into SATC when it was in syndication; for better or worse it was my and my friends’ sexual education, it taught us the basics,” recalls Ipema. “I fell further in love with the show in college and constantly put on the DVDs with my roommates; it was one of those shows before bingeing or Netflix was a thing.”
Kerry grew up in a Chicago suburb and attended Indiana University, graduating from its Musical Theatre program. Afterward, she moved to New York City and took improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade, whose alumni includes Amy Poehler, Donald Glover and Kate McKinnon.
“Improv allowed me to create my own output and practice creating something from nothing, which fed my artistic sensibility far more than auditioning and waiting for a call,” shared Ipema.
OWSATC was co-created by Kerry and her writing partner TJ Dawe, who also co-created the One Man Star Wars and One Man Lord of the Rings shows. The partners met when Dawe cast Kerry in PostSecret: The Show in 2015.
When walking back from PostSecret rehearsal, Dawe asked Kerry if she was a fan of SATC and if she would be interested in doing a parody.
“TJ and I love the idea of creating a sense of community in the theater,” said Ipema. “For me, that’s what makes theatre great. It’s the shared experience amongst a bunch of strangers who go through something together, so we sort of adopted the same feeling for OWSATC.”
Kerry Ipema performing the show (Credit: Paul B. Corning)
When asked about the process of the show, she states she found the difficult part of any parody is coming up with the formula.
“Once that formula is set into place, and we’ve figured out what big iconic moments and relationships, from Aiden to Miranda eating the entire cookie, we want to touch upon we can then weave the narrative of the show.”
Through asking audience members to write down their deal breakers and craziest date stories, and Ipema sharing them from the stage, the audience can expel their dating demons while actively participating in the show.
“We’re taking these real-life horrible experiences and being able to laugh about them, which was the point of the quartet’s brunches in SATC. I love reading them out loud because the stories are so insane; you can’t write that type of humour!”
She believes SATC was truly groundbreaking at the time to have four sexually autonomous women with independent goals and accomplishments coming together and speaking openly about their sexuality and supporting one another.
“Sex in the City to me is a celebration of friendship,” stated Kerry. “What I love about performing the show is I look out in the audience and see groups of women of all ages coming together for a fun night out.”
Kerry Ipema gives the SATC ladies a run for their Jimmy Choos!(Credit: Idil Sukan,)
“As Charlotte says in the show, men come and go but they are each other’s soulmates; I think that sentiment is really empowering to women.”
However, even devoted fans will acknowledge SATC has its problematic and poorly aged elements, such as its lack of diversity, a narrow perspective on spectrum of sexuality, and an unfortunate characterization of Mr. Big as “the next Donald Trump.”
Kerry shines a brutal spotlight upon the show’s faults out of love and intent, “As a parody writer I want to challenge and call out the things SATC fell short on, and we have to comment on how far we come. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
OWSATC had a whirlwind creative process with Ipema applying to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in December 2015. Both her and Dawe wrote the show in February 2016, In green rooms and dressing rooms while doing the US PostSecret tour and performed it in July 2016 at the WFF.
Canada appears to be a good luck charm for Kerry, who has performed the show 150 times around the world and toured throughout the US And UK. She also opened her rom-com parody Six Chick Flicks, a two-hander with fellow New York writer and comedian KK Apple, at the WFF this year.
Ipema needs no introduction to Atlantic Canada, having performed PostSecret: The Show in Saint John and Fredericton in 2018.
“I love Canada, Canada has always treated me so well,” gushed Ipema. “It feels a little symbolic for me to come back to Canada three years after we opened OWSATC there, so I’m very excited.”
While she readily admits she is “a Carrie and Miranda rising,” Samantha is her favourite of the ladies to play. In fact, a very Samantha-esque event happened when she performed the show in her hometown.
“So, I’m doing the show and I’m looking in the front row and thinking, ‘that woman looks familiar.’ And then it dawns on me, ’That’s my fifth-grade teacher!’”
“At the end of the show I have four women come up to me, and they are my kindergarten, second, third and fifth grade teacher, who all came to see me perform. They were so nice and so supportive, but there was a moment where I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did that in front of my kindergarten teacher!’”
One Woman Sex and the City plays at the Saint John Theatre Company’s BMO Studio Theatre on September 26-27. For more information, check out SJTC’s website and Facebook.
