Karen Dunbar reveals struggle to learn scripts due to menopause affected memory

Scottish comedian Karen Dunbar has opened up on how memory issues triggered by the menopause have made it difficult for her to learn lines.

The BAFTA-winning star joined Ewen Cameron and Cat Harvey on STV Radio’s Ewen and Cat at Breakfast on Friday to discuss her Edinburgh Fringe stand-up show, Chirpy.

She said: “I’ve had quite a lot of problems with my memory since the menopause. The less I have to learn [that’s] scripted – like, absolutely scripted – the better.”

The former Chewin’ the Fat star says memory issues have forced her to withdraw from performing scripted theatre.

She added: “I’m not even going to dress that up because there’s a bit [of me] that goes, ‘don’t tell anybody that’, but I’d rather just tell the truth.

“It was just before the lockdown and I had done The Importance of Being Ernest. I was Lady Bracknell – massive part, brilliant. My memory was like a superpower before. I learned an hour-and-a-half-long monologue called Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, darling.

“But learning new stuff? I couldn’t do it, and the stress in me was far too much. That was the start of it, when I was doing The Importance of Being Ernest. Now that’s a hard play, but I’d learned harder stuff, so I was a bit confused about that.

“Then it was the lockdown, so I didn’t do any other plays for about a year, then when the lockdown opened back up, I did two other plays and the stress in me was through the roof.

“I thought, ‘I can’t do this’, and actually that’s partly why I’ve ended up doing much more stand-up. It’s mine, and people aren’t waiting for me to give them their cue so they can do their lines, and I’m not standing there in absolute panic.

“I can just tell people on stage, ‘I’m on the menopause and I can’t remember what I’m saying now’, and they laugh!”

Available on DAB, STV Player and smart speakers, STV Radio was recently revealed to already be in the top ten most listened to commercial radio stations in Scotland after its first six months on air, according to RAJAR audience data.

Ewen and Cat at Breakfast airs every weekday from 6am until 10am on the station.