Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#50): Jen Tucker, BOG BODY

4 Jul

As anticipation builds for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, we’re catching up with a range of exciting creatives preparing to bring their work to the world’s largest arts festival this August. In this series, we delve into the stories behind the shows, the inspiration driving the artists, and what audiences can expect. Today, we’re joined by Jen Tucker to chat about Bog Body.

Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?

Bog Body is a one-woman show about a young woman, Petra, who falls in love with a 2,000-year-old preserved bog body. The 40-minute play is set in the final moments before their wedding. Bog Body is inspired by the Lindow Man, who you can see at the British Museum, and who has always been incredibly fascinating to me since I first saw him as a child. There’s something both uncanny and beautiful about encountering these ancient bodies; preserved almost perfectly in the bogs, many of their facial features remain intact. As Petra describes, looking at the Lindow Man is like looking into the faces of the past. I knew I had to capture this feeling in a play somehow, and Bog Body was born! The show began as a comedy about an unhinged woman who develops an unhealthy and one-sided obsession with the Lindow Man, but during the writing process, my empathy for Petra and her unrequited love grew. Bog Body now takes the form of a darkly comic exploration of love, and a celebration of its ability to transcend time and reality.

What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?

When I visualised the show, it automatically appeared to me in The Vault, an intimate and almost underground space at Paradise Green, where I have volunteered for several years. It’s one of the only spaces in Edinburgh I’d be willing to bring the show to life in, and I think it will offer a unique and potent experience for its audiences. The nature of the show, too, is suited to Fringe – it’s a little too weird for London, and leaves its audiences with more questions than it answers. I think it’s the perfect play to squeeze into a busy day, giving its audiences a short and punchy account of a bizarrely endearing love story.

How would you describe your show in three words?

Kooky, heart-wrenching, bittersweet.

What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?

Most of the theatre I write is political and fairly dogmatic, but Bog Body is an exception. There isn’t one clear thing to take away or one agenda it pushes, merely an insight into Petra’s experience of love and reality - the subject is so nebulous and hard to pin down that I think everybody will leave with entirely different perspectives. Petra is one that many would consider a ‘madwoman’, as she seems to experience hallucinations and delusions. But as she herself says, is it insanity, or is it something greater? This is what the play boils down to for me, and I hope audiences will leave with a level of understanding and appreciation for her surreal perspective on love, desire and death.

What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?

Spend an evening at Portobello beach watching the sunset when the bustle of the city gets too much! And remember to eat your five-a-day.

Where and when can people see your show?

Catch us at the wonderful Paradise in the Vault from August 18-24th at 2pm!