Darkie Armo Girl, Karine Bedrossian’s electrifying one-woman show, commands attention from the moment it begins. First performed in 2022 and revived last year, it now returns for extra performance and it's an event not to miss. The show takes you through the thrills and horrors of a hectic life. She struts, shimmies, and taunts while revealing some horrific truths. She is such an irresistible storyteller that you find yourself hooked. The story is one of fame, glamour, abuse, self-harm, and suicide. If that subject matter doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you haven't seen it delivered with such high energy and provocation. It's currently at the
Finborough Theatre.
The show's title refers to a slur a popular girl at school once called her. Her ancestry is Armenian, and her parents were from Cyprus, where they fled the civil war and arrived in the UK with nothing. Shortly after she was born in Roehampton. The birth was an emergency C-section that left the baby and mother exhausted. It was a tough start. And whatever she did didn’t seem to fit in. By the time she was eight and a half, she already hated herself.
As she grows up, the story unfolds: scolded by her friend’s mother for wanting stuffed vine leaves instead of fish fingers, enduring sexual abuse by her brother’s friend, and being sent away to Cyprus for the summer. By the time she reached eighteen, she had become homeless, befriended by petty criminals and addicts. And so, naturally, the solution was to become a pop star.
The path to fame, however, was one that involved lecherous producers, eating disorders, abortions and various abusive relationships. No detail is spared as she analyses the forces fueling the self-destruction throughout. The show describes itself as surviving life with the innocence of a child, but the self-destruction of a suicide bomber. And so is detailed her life of fame, one step and a few missteps.
But watching the show, it doesn’t seem like just another survival story. Among the tales of addiction, abuse, and therapy gone wrong, there’s always an unspoken reference to a burning desire to perform. An obvious talent lies underneath the crisis. Perhaps this is what makes the piece so exciting: you find yourself rooting for her to get a break. Fame may not be the endgame. But survival and talent coexist.
Written and performed by Karine Bedrossian and directed by Anastasia Bruce, Darkie Armo Girl continues at the Finborough Theatre until 7 February.
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Photo: production photo.
