Prowling the Abyss
Created and Performed by Karen Anne Light
Direction & Dramaturgy by Elizabeth Baron
“Intensely poetic and delightfully avant garde exploration of Greek mythology and queer femininity.” - Lisa Marie, audience member at Orlando International Fringe Festival
photo by Krys Fox
At Medusa’s comedy club, the host is no longer the Medusa of myth (though she’ll tell you the tale - as she remembers it). She is a lipstick lesbian battling the patriarchy that tried to kill her eons ago. Her weapon? Stand-up comedy! With some very unusual takes on historic and mythic events, her "tight ten" runs a bit long, and what she considers “relatable content” ranges from her salad days with Sappho to sicking the harpies on her least favorite Supreme Court religious extremists.
The other “comics,” all played by Karen Anne Light in this solo play, absurdly express parts of the Femme archetype, provoking Medusa into deeper truths. Butter Sandwich strains to share poetic insights about her favorite dish, but she’s so exhausted she can’t get off the floor. Tremble Lip, a breathy, sweet femme just wants to ride in cars, drinking milkshakes with the butch of her dreams. Together, these characters mend a fragmented and forgotten Femme mythology.
This piece is the latest devised work in Karen Anne Light and Elizabeth Baron's careers of devising toward/from the Feminine in theater (Agamemnon, Portals, The Wallaby Way, among many). We are physical theatre artists who have each independently sought to discover and articulate a physical theater by and for the Feminine and, thus, humans of every expression. We now join forces to seek the Queer Femme. The forms in this play encourage audiences to face the wounding of the Feminine within themselves, and to experience Femme on her own terms.
Production History
Down to Clown (Pine Box Rock Shop, Brooklyn, NY) July 2024
The Vino Theater (Brooklyn, NY) June 2024
Orlando International Fringe Festival (Orlando, Florida) May 2024
Tucson Fringe Festival (Tucson, AZ) January 2024
HOT! Festival, Dixon Place (NYC) July 2022
Theaterlab's Gallery Series (NYC) October 2021
City Artist Corps Grant, 2021
What Reviewers & Audiences Are Saying
" Light has a winning character in Medusa, all piercing looks at the audience, dramatic pauses and an arch delivery that never lets you forget she’s more powerful than you.
Light’s high-concept show, directed by Elizabeth Baron, finds other aspects of the female psyche taking the stage, and Light smartly differentiates her characters." - The Orlando Sentinel, Matthew J. Palm
"Medusa is back with a brand-new snake-free head, and she’s got quite a few bloody bones to pick with humanity — at least the male half — in this gonzo solo performance art piece starring writer Karen Anne Light and directed by Elizabeth Baron. Light’s reimagined monster is a queer femme icon [ . . . ].
This Medusa may not turn audiences to stone, but there’s certainly something hypnotic about her [ . . . ].
[Y]ou don’t have to be a harpy, historian or homosexual to be engrossed [ . . .]. -The Orlando Weekly, Seth Kubersky
"Sometimes I have the rare occasion to be sitting in a dark theater witnessing a piece on the stage, when my entire being gets stampeded by the visceral and poignant actions on the stage. Such was my experience while watching Prowling the Abyss, performed and created by the indubitable Karen Light, directed with mastery by Elizabeth Baron. This piece is physical theater at its height, where the transformation into the differing characters was from the guts outward, radiating from the vocal tones all the way out to the tiny gestures of the hands drawing a bath. I was taken, Taken away and then back again into myself. Feeling the joy and power of theater, I left feeling filled up, with renewed energy for this thing called ACTING."
-Fay Simpson, Founder of The Lucid Body, Associate Arts Professor NYU Graduate Acting
"Prowling the Abyss is a stunning, one-woman show filled with compelling characters and empowering themes. ...
Powerful, beautiful, and intensely dynamic... exploring a wide variety of themes such as new love, assorted misogynies, and the embrace of female empowerment.
Karen’s ability to seamlessly and convincingly switch between these three characters is simply breathtaking. ...It’s an incredible feat to witness!
... a compelling story, focused on various aspects of femininity, the queer experience, and the embrace of authentic womanhood.
This show is an absolute roller coaster of emotions and experiences, all cleverly guided by Light’s acting talent and gift of movement." - Krysti Reif, Freaks of HHN, Orlando, FL
"You were unhinged and beautiful and you touched my heart." -Lucy Kay, audience member at Orlando Fringe
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so specifically articulate and embody so many characters.”
“When you became the Cat, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!”
-Acious, audience member at Tucson Fringe Festival
"Generous. Kind. Bold. The most moved and held I have felt by a piece of art since Miranda July's Kajillionaire."
-Erika MacDonald, solo performer, theatre artist
"I loved it! What a joy to spend time with these characters, these voices, these ruminations, these passions and curiosities. Most of all, what a joy to watch Karen's immense talents on display, shifting between these different personae and embodying these disparate, beautiful, grotesque, absurd, harrowing spirits. [...] I appreciated them all as elliptical, thoughtful meditations on conflicting attitudes of power."
-Joshua Fesi: writer, creator, producer, Brooklyn NY
“Seeing you go so far into these parts and take space and play in them, made me think that, if she can do THAT, then surely the parts of myself that I hide or think are too much…they can take up space, too."
...
"I was hungry in my soul for that show."
-Acious, Tucson, AZ
photo by Gontran Durocher
photo by Gontran Durocher
photo by Liv Rigdon
photo by Liv Rigdon
"Dearest Karen, that was a beautiful, sacred poem."
-Calary, Carpenter, San Francisco
“My favorite poem ever is ‘Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing’ by Margaret Atwood and this show feels like reading it for the first time.” Xx Jess Ducey, Theatre Producer, NYC
"Prowling the Abyss was such a visceral experience for me. My molecules are still rearranging.
I am changed."
-Elena Azzoni, writer, NYC
"I saw it as an invocation."
-Tamar, audience member, Tucson Fringe Festival
"Your creativity and dedication to the craft is so admirable. Fav solo show by far. You did so good to Medusa - a wildly misunderstood character. Thank you." - RJ, Orlando Fringe
"Off the wall - strange, fun, insightful, truth - LOVED IT." -Bonnie Sprung, Orlando Fringe
"Even better the second time! I feel like I've been invited to the most underground of queer mythological variety show, the kind you need to know a million passwords for entry, but by the end realizing no - none of those were necessary - this space is for everyone!" -Daniel McCoy, actor, playwright, member of NeoFuturists, NYC
"I went through stages of avoidance, looking away [...] because I’ve been taught to see my own femme nature as a joke or something to use to manipulate men, not something to just be. I thought about the categories we are put into as women and actors. [...] It made me think about de Beauvoir’s opening statement about no one being born a woman, but becoming one from learning her role.
-Alyssa K. Simon: actress, NYC
"I adored your work! Your character shifting is so precise and entertaining!! Brilliant!"🫀🫀🫀"
-Emma Lias, UCSD Theatre & Critical Gender Studies Depts., performer and theatre maker
“I was THRILLED to see such poetic, state-based work; true clown! I was crying, when you spoke about all the women, all the people who came before us..."
-Shanna Leonard, improv performer, clown, and activist, Tucson, AZ
“Lovely. Dark. Deep. Explores the abyss in all of us.” -Giorgio, Orlando Fringe Festival
“Thank you so much for your vulnerability and for your phenomenal artistry.” - Pablo, Orlando Fringe Festival
"In such a dark time, it is especially comforting to think of being surrounded by a multitude of women who have seen it all. Thank you for your vulnerability, strength, and good humor. HAGS (Have a Good Summer, or actual hags)." -Irene Convey, Performer, NYC
“Hauntingly visceral, deeply personal, wild, and unburdened- hit me to the core.” - Torrey Shineman, performer, NYC
“You took me places I didn’t know existed. Amazing work.” - Veronica, Orlando Fringe Festival
"I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for this wonderful experience and your constant kindness. Thank you for bringing this show to Orlando Things are not always easy for our LGBTQ+ famiy here, and to have a show that celebrates that community is very special and certainly a change of pace. Thank you so much and I hope to work with you again soon."
-Tyler J. Hampton, Theatre Technician, Orlando
"Thank you for this wonderful show. It felt very personal, thoughtful, inquisitive. Enjoyed the storytelling and the journey. Beautiful presentation ..." - Josh, Orlando Fringe
"At this second viewing, I was taken in by the tiniest of moments used to express big ideas. I'm thinking more about the specificity of smallness. I, personally, as a performer, tend to go BIG myself, so I'm more interested in the opposite. I suppose I'm saying that I want to learn how to do what you do!! - Mike Niederman, performer, NYC
“Karen prowls the stage like she prowls the abyss with a feline energy that activates the theatre in a gloriously uncomfortable manner. The discomfort I felt was an absolutely enjoyable experience as Karen switched between traditionally femme archetypes, challenging their place in our collective psyche. I'm a sucker for mythology, and this show, built around Medusa reclaiming her place in our traditional narrative, scratched that itch.” -Daniel McCoy of “Whisky Flicks Live” & NeoFuturists, Brooklyn
“Fringey buttery orgasm cat.” - audience member, Orlando Fringe
"I was drawn in with the farting cats on the poster, and seduced with the buttah! Loved your show so much. I laughed a lot ... a lot!
-Bernie Blackburn, writer, NYC
“What an amazing show. I wish it was longer!” -Luca Torrens, actor, Miami, Florida
"From someone that comes from where there are "other ways" and that is on a personal journey to connect with those, this felt like worldwide planetary universal connectedness!!"
-Ishtar,Dominican Republic
“Pagan dragging my own anima along” - Clark, Orlando Fringe
“You were absolutely entrancing as Medusa.” - Kat, Orlando Fringe Festival
"KAREN YOU ARE FANTASTIC!! What range! I enjoyed all your facial expressions! Really loved the hysterics, probably my favorite part. I know Butter Sandwich isn't supposed to make people cry but I teared up especially at the mention of the little mouse haha omg! I'm tearing up now! " - Cory Pitts, Hair Stylist and Colorist, NYC