Q&A: August Kiss Fegley chats The Body I Left in Susquehanna National Forest

Fresh from the success of Saloon Girls, award-winning company UR MEAN KATHLEEN returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with The Body I Left in Susquehanna National Forest – a darkly comic thriller that turns a honeymoon road trip into a psychological nightmare. August Kiss Fegley talks about balancing horror with humour and putting complex women at the centre of the story.

For anyone coming in cold, what's a one-sentence pitch you give people for The Body I Left in Susquehanna National Forest before they've read a word of the synopsis?

It’s sort of like if Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham got high in some cabin somewhere and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie The Drama, Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.

The play blends grisly comedy, thriller, and relationship drama in one 55-minute package. Which of those elements did you find yourselves protecting most fiercely when something had to be cut?

In its early stages, the relationship between our newlywed couple was what we spent the most time thinking about with Tom, our playwright. Since so many aspects of their relationship come to a head in 55 minutes, it’s important the audience understands why they got together to begin with. We prioritised maintaining sweeter interactions between the two of them, to contrast the darker moments. After all, we don’t want to give away who the villain is; rather, we want to allow the audience to question if there even is one at all. We want to know the reasons they make a good match, and the lengths they would or wouldn’t go to protect one another. Like many horror films, the tragic scenario at the centre of the plot (the dead body) serves more as a foundation for the viewer to learn about the characters’ inner lives, watching how they respond to the situation and muscle through the challenge.

UR MEAN KATHLEEN's mission is to put challenging, diverting narratives with women at the centre on stage - where does this show sit in that broader body of work?

Like our six soiled doves in our first Fringe show, SALOON GIRLS, in The Body…, we showcase a woman who has been shaped by deep expectations yet embraces a full spectrum of emotion, humour, and peculiarity throughout her story; true to the feminine experience. Her positive, if at times bizarre, attachment to another woman in this situation aids her in finally breaking free of the heteronormative compulsion to defer to a partner for safety and stability. Ur Mean Kathleen is excited to tell stories where vital introspection is found in unlikely places, and where our characters can strive for more, becoming fully themselves. Claire’s journey carries a truth many women have struggled with: finding security within oneself is far more sustainable than being stuck in something you know isn’t quite right.

Saloon Girls won awards at your Fringe debut last year. What did you take from that experience into building this show, and what are you doing differently this time?

The warmth we received last year energised us tremendously for this new project. Our debut proved to us that investing in ambitious stories and bringing together our talented peers is worthwhile, and we’re grateful to have grown Ur Mean Kathleen from the seeds of that confidence. We are looking forward to seeing what folks take away from this brand new piece, since it stands apart from the genre and style of SALOON GIRLS. As producers, we are excited to pivot towards a theatrical experience we haven’t explored before, taking our audience on a psychological journey rather than an hour of historical societal commentary. What remains a pillar of our work in this production, however, is a commitment to a macabre sense of humour. That is always to be expected from the work we put out.

The title places a body in a very specific, named forest. How important was that sense of geography and specificity to the story you wanted to tell?

We as a team all grew up in the northeastern regions of the United States, an area we’re fond of for its picturesque winding roads draped in canopies of dense forests, tempting to escape into. We created a fictional national forest to emphasise the vast landscape this couple travels through, which serves as the backdrop for this “rom-com gone wrong”. Rather than setting the story at their final honeymoon destination, Niagara Falls, we witness their road trip go awry, leading them to unexpected yet unavoidable dilemmas that put their new marriage to the test. You know, being in the woods is much more romantic when there isn’t a dead body telling you that your husband is a prick.

What's next for UR MEAN KATHLEEN after this run — is there another genre-bending, women-centred story already brewing?

Yes! We are both in the beginning stages of writing new pieces, based on true stories from our lives. One captures some really strange and shocking nuances of childhood girl-on-girl friendship, and the other is a one-woman show about the relationship between a teen girl and a compulsive liar.

The Body I Left in Susquehanna National Forest is at the Edinburgh Fringe at theSpace @ Niddry Street from 7 – 22 Aug (not 16) at 9:15pm. Ticket information here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-body-i-left-in-susquehanna-national-forest