Writer and Director: Jen Tucker
In the early 1980s, a number of discoveries of human remains were found in the peat bog known as Lindow Moss in Wilmslow, Cheshire. The most famous and complete discovery has become known as Lindow Man. Estimated to have died sometime close to the Roman invasion of Britain, the man’s body was well preserved, with trimmed beard and moustache and a fox-fur armband. After being preserved from further decomposition by freeze-drying, the body is now on permanent display in the British Museum.
Jen Tucker’s one-person play, previewing at the Arches Lane before an Edinburgh Fringe Festival run, stars Maddie White as Petra, a young woman who has become obsessed with Lindow Man for a variety of reasons. Dressed in a wedding dress and Doc Martens, her obsession has turned into a form of romantic attachment, perhaps exacerbated by the sense of peace she finds around Lindow Man’s body that her life affords her nowhere else.
White’s rendition of Tucker’s script gradually unfolds Petra’s story, assisted by played-in voices including a doctor enquiring after the young woman’s mental health. Everything ties back gradually to the loss of Petra’s twin sister Becky, who lost her life in Lindow Moss.
Tucker brings in elements of Becky’s death through combative back-and-forth between Petra and Rachel Burnham’s recorded doctor. White plays the struggling survivor with calm sensitivity, managing to convey the show’s more fanciful events (such as stealing Lindow Man’s remains and wanting to marry them) with such gentle serenity that they feel completely natural for the character.
In the play’s short running time, there is a lot of Petra’s story to unravel. That it manages to do so effectively and without feeling rushed is a testament to both writing and performance. And yet, it also feels slight in places. While the connection between Becky, Lindow Moss and, therefore, Lindow Man is clarified as the piece progresses, it feels as if the speculation about the man’s status before his death doesn’t quite line up as thematically to the rest of Tucker’s script as it could.
After a two-night preview in London, Bog Body will play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. Whether it’s strong enough to punch through in a field full of interesting one-person plays is debatable, but there’s enough quirky originality and quality on display to hope it will.
Continues until 30 May 2025
