About

Bog Witch by Bryony Kimmings

“An artist of exceptional integrity, compassion, imagination & guts” The Guardian

Bryony Kimmings was wrangled enough. Single mum, disabled kid, slammed with work, barely keeping it together mentally and physically. She didn’t have time to think about the planet, thanks. But then she fell in love with an eco-warrior... who really wanted to talk about the future of civilisation… a lot. Just what Kimmings needed, some extra guilt and existential dread to pile on life's compost heap.

Bog Witch is Kimmings’ first show for nearly half a decade and it's a solo. It’s the story of her being dragged kicking and screaming into the countryside; decamping her entire life onto a regenerative acre and finding herself plugged directly back into the yucky ecosystem. From slick city bitch to big boggy witch.

Bog Witch is about what happens when you turn and face things instead of hiding from them. Something that at 44, Bryony only just learnt was good to do. Expect panic, joy and crying (and that’s just from her!)

This show is about that weird longing that magically stops when you hold a stone a kid gives you... or you stare into a fire. A show about filling that hole (not in that way, you pervert) but the one in your soul that aches no matter how well you are doing at work, what you buy, how heavy you lift or how many shags you get. The hole that feels… not to be woo-woo, but…ANCIENT.

Bog Witch is about anxiety and apathy, mushrooms and loneliness, vegetables and free stuff, birdsong and paganism, black cats and water supplies, wild flowers and even wilder women. A show about reducing the burden, unpacking the guilt and the joy of stepping up. About loving yourself as the simple, stinking animal you… cos right now everything is TOO MUCH. In Bryony's true ramshackle and glamorous fashion... Songs, screens, stories and lots of recycled costumes.

Bog Witch is about uncertain times, the workings of the human brain, doing shit we don’t want to do and finding new ways to be happy. A show about how we have forgotten what it feels like to nuzzle into the bosom of mother nature... and what amazing and radical things might happen if we all remember.

Commissioned by Soho Theatre Walthamstow and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.
Originated as the monologue Freakosystem for Charleston Festival 2024. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.