Edinburgh Fringe
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Edinburgh Fringe 〰️
Image: Corinne Cumming
by Zoe Paskett
When the first row of seats is lined with waterproof ponchos, you have an inkling of the kind of show you’re about to see. Except with Rosa Garland, you rarely do.
Primal Bog is gross and proud of it. The first moments of the show are presented without an ounce of coyness or trepidation, and the first sounds it elicits from some of the audience are gasps. But when a naked, be-wigged Rosa introduces themself as Gwyneth Paltrow and begins trying to flog their latest Goop product – fluorescent orange slime – the laughs come thick and fast. And we’re off.
There are buckets and bowls of slime on the stage, with one ominously hanging from the top of a tall step ladder. The front row is looking at it nervously. They’re very much in the splash zone. Rosa is quickly covered in slime – there’s one delightful moment after it has been poured where it looks like a lovely latex beret balancing over their fringe, then oozes down over their eyes and hangs in a big globule off of one eyebrow.
Primal Bog is a thick and gooey show that mixes eroticism with playfulness to talk about desire, bodies and queerness. Rosa’s bold freedom permits us all to let go, writhe around and revel in that messiness for an hour. Sex isn’t tidy, and our bodies do weird stuff all day long.
In a piece Rosa wrote for LMAOnaise, they said this (which is a better summation of the show than I could ever give): “In queer culture and art, we’re often drawn to slimy parts of nature culturally marked as abject or gross: snails, slugs, worms, mud, mushrooms, generally all the ‘weird little guys’. If you treat us as gross and monstrous we’ll just embrace it and throw it back at you, and what we make will be beautiful and might make you retch.”
Rosa has made a beautiful show. There’s an unabashed innocence to their expression that makes you question why on earth we should be shocked by the things that society has deemed gross, such as the bodies that we all have and the functions they perform, or desire, something that everyone experiences differently, but is universal nonetheless.
Among the slimy chaos, there is a strangely calming moment of watching Rosa be tattooed, while a video plays of an old man paddling in a rowing boat to Lady in Red by Chris De Burgh. Rosa and the tattoo artist, Lief, exchange smiles and looks of reassurance. It’s really lovely.
It’s fun to glance at the row in front of me, who began the show with their hands over their mouths, and see them end it with their hands in the air. Sort of like watching a little bit of liberation happen in real time.
It’s normal that we might feel some discomfort at first – I identified this feeling in myself as one of envy, that someone would be able to so openly and beautifully express their self and wants in a way that I know I can’t. That’s the wonderful thing about art though (and queer art specifically): we can all bathe in and drink from it and strengthen ourselves collectively. The bog is for us all.
Rosa Garland: Primal Bog is at Assembly Roxy (Downstairs) at 21:50. Tickets here
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