Theatre / Reviews
Review: Bog Witch, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A tour de force of eco-scepticism, laced with gags and bathos’
Performance artist Bryony Kimmings’ new solo show embraces a semi-autobiographical episode into a story about her year adapting to living in the country away from her consumerist, chaotic and fun-filled city life.
As a performer, she is a frenetic stage presence, if not blessed with fluidity, and holds attention for a full hour and 40 minutes, progressing through her eco-sceptical year in the country.
The show starts inauspiciously with a standup routine leaning heavily on some crass cheap jokes about her hole (which we later learn was in her soul) and relying on none too subtle stereotypes about country types, featuring several references to The Wicker Man and traditional folk music.
The show grows in a similar way to the landscape around her, and through a series of not-always-connected vignettes, we travel on a journey through the four seasons. Much like the eponymous pizza, we crave more of some and less of others.
Bryony has met up with an old flame, Will, and together with her son and his daughter, they embark on a farm project. Not quite living off-grid, Bryony soon grows bored of the monotony and lack of familiar soulmates. Enter Asta, a large-bosomed organiser of the local coven who lives in a “house like a hobbit’s vagina”, promising an invitation to a sinister-sounding ‘Council of All Beings’.
The production is rich with imagery; the wide expanse of the Bristol Old Vic’s main stage is dotted with long whittling sticks, while back projection adds texture and emotional touches, courtesy of video design by Will Duke complementing Tom Rogers’ versatile set and composer Tom Parkinson’s perfectly pitched soundtrack. Witty and well-sung songs scattered throughout point to Kimmings’ delicate line in self-deprecation.
“Poor Bryony” gets to model an array of “Toast-inspired” outfits with ridiculously expensive bonnets, and a risible turn at Yule as though Sabrina Carpenter was playing the part of a new age Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Gradually however, her scepticism evaporates, and Will’s earnest nose-in-a-book intensity seems to have paid off when she rattles through some of the impacts of the climate crisis; including a Tesco sandwich clocking up more air miles than she has.
However, it is the story centred around the 300-year-old mother oak – a tree that she is intent on felling because it spoils the view from her desk – which fuses the piece together. By then, many of the easy laughs have dried up and the reality of life and its reliance on an instable ecosystem comes thudding home.
The finale is a drawn-out affair featuring 10 (count them!) members of the audience taking to the stage with some donning huge, beautifully rendered masks representing the various ‘Beings’. It borders on Am Dram, but ultimately provides a climactic, life-affirming message.
Kimmings’ return to the stage after five years away is a tour de force of eco-scepticism, laced with gags and bathos.
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Bog Witch is at Bristol Old Vic on June 5-6 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk. Follow @bryonykimmings for updates.
All photos: (unless stated); Rosie Powell (from Bog Witch at Soho Theatre)
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