Bog Witch at Soho Theatre Walthamstow Review
Written by Jasmine for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Bryony Kimmings is back (at last) with a new show that will pick you up and drag you off to the countryside with her so absorbingly that you’ll be a bit surprised when you walk out the door and remember you’re still in London.
Soho Theatre’s new 1000-seater was absolutely packed, but Kimmings’s honest and autobiographical performance in Bog Witch creates a surprising sense of intimacy. Often discourse about climate change can feel overwhelming, or like it sets a standard too high to be reachable, causing people to disengage. Bog Witch is the opposite of that. Kimmings’s honesty about the plastic amazon bits she’ll buy to fill her ‘soul hole’ makes her easy to relate to - a flawed but well-intentioned person just trying to balance everything in life.
That said, the journey of Bog Witch brings us into her own exploration of what you can do to be better and more sustainable, providing a real depth of exploration that balances the personal and the political beautifully. Particularly, her depiction of the frustration of constantly discovering you’re doing something wrong, and the climate anxiety that grows as your awareness does, felt like an important expression of how so many people feel in the face of this crisis. Throughout Bog Witch we really do feel like we are on a mildly surreal but very diaristic journey into Kimmings’s first year in the rural countryside.
What had me going over the show again and again afterwards in my head was the ease with which Kimmings brings you through the many changes in her self and her life, over a year out of the city. The tone of the show, both in style and plot, undergoes a gigantic shift so naturally that you’ll be as caught off guard by where you end up as Kimmings is. Brilliantly silly songs, narration and cottagecore costumes provide lightness and enough little moments of change to distract you from the larger change taking place in her as the show goes on.
Speaking of sustainability, Kimmings needs very little set to create the world of her new rural life - her storytelling combined with Tom Rogers’ simple set, Guy Hoare’s lighting design and Will Duke’s beautiful largely silhouetted projections create a dreamlike countryside with the images brought fully to life - like the cat, or a silhouetted conversation gaining more significance from the rarity of direct representation.
Lewis Gibson’s sound design and Tom Parkinson’s composition adds to this effect - a real highlight is the storm where you feel like the sound is actually moving around you, like you are in the eye of the storm. It gave me goosebumps.
The care that has been put into every aspect of this show shows, and the tenderness of the ending will stay with you long after you leave the theatre.
Bog Witch plays at Soho Theatre Walthamstow until 25th October 2025
★★★★
