Director: Bryony Kimmings
There are theatrical productions that cast a spell over their audience, and true to its name, Bog Witch does exactly that from the moment Bryony Kimmings steps onto the stage. Equal parts folklore, memoir and fever dream, this striking solo show is an exquisitely crafted exploration of identity, belonging and the wild places that exist both around us and within us.
As the audience settled into their seats at Storyhouse, there was an undeniable sense of uncertainty. No one quite seemed to know what they were about to witness. Kimmings emerges in a delightfully bedraggled costume, immediately drawing the audience into her world before gently leading them somewhere far stranger than anticipated.
Inspired by Kimmings’ own experience of moving to the countryside, Bog Witch weaves together autobiography with myth, fact with fiction, until the boundaries between them become deliciously blurred. What begins as an anecdote gradually transforms into something increasingly surreal, mirroring the spiralling landscape of the mind itself. It is theatrical storytelling at its most inventive, constantly shifting beneath your feet like the bog at the heart of the piece.
Kimmings is mesmerising throughout. She possesses an instinctive understanding of rhythm, knowing exactly when to land a joke, when to burst into dance and when to plunge headlong into beautifully orchestrated silence, allowing the audience time to reflect. Kimmings performs her own songs live, each one enriching the narrative, while voiceovers seamlessly expand the world beyond the stage. That Kimmings writes, performs and directs the production herself only makes its ambition and cohesion all the more impressive.
Visually, the production proves that imagination will always outshine excess. Tom Rogers’ deceptively simple set and costume design creates an intimate, living landscape, transformed by Will Duke’s evocative projections of branches, leaves and shifting woodland imagery. White sheets become canvases for memory, while a modest cart-house reveals hidden windows into domestic life, each projection adding another layer to this wonderfully strange tale. Guy Hoare’s atmospheric lighting and Lewis Gibson’s immersive sound design work in perfect harmony, creating a world that feels both tangible and otherworldly.
Under the co-direction of Francesca Murray-Fuentes, the production never loses its emotional compass, no matter how gloriously eccentric its journey becomes. That eccentricity reaches its joyful peak in the finale, as the mysterious coven woven throughout the story finally comes to life. During its great council meeting, humans become fantastical embodiments of the natural world, and Kimmings invites 10 audience members onto the stage to join her. What follows is a wonderfully theatrical spectacle as volunteers are transformed with delightfully eccentric costumes, such enormous owl heads, mushrooms, a badger, a mackerel and even an oak tree, each embodying characters and creatures that have shaped the story’s enchanting world.
What lingers long after the curtain falls is the confidence with which Kimmings embraces the messy, hard-hitting and often lonely experience of being human. Like the bog itself, this is a brilliant one-woman show that thrives in its openness. Strange, enchanting and richly alive, Bog Witch is a captivating piece of contemporary storytelling that proves the simplest theatrical ingredients can conjure the most unforgettable magic.
Reviewed on 30th July 2026
