B*TCH EAT DOG to Bring Puppet Feminist Sketch Show to Edinburgh Fringe
Creator Mel Carter's show will run at the Jade Studio at Greenside Venues following a North American tour.
Punch and Judy puppets perform a gender swapped adaptation of Moby Dick that explores the fallacies of girlboss feminism. A tradwife named Felicity Groundwater hawks her questionable raw milk wares and ultimately breastfeeds a member of the audience with one of her many pendulous burlap boobs. A new kind of IUD insertion escalates until rats are being shoved down a cervix. The evening is hosted by a hapless, well-intentioned white man who flails wildly as his misguided attempts at allyship lead to a painful realization. B*TCH EAT DOG is a puppet-filled sketch show that uses classical texts, feminist theory, and singing willies to interrogate the gendered ethics of pursuit.
'Until 1974, American women couldn't open their own bank account without approval from their husband,' says the show's creator, Mel Carter. 'Consequently, women's desires became tied up in men's, making people-pleasing a means of survival. As women entered the workforce, a narrative emerged supporting cutthroat women pursuing success at any cost: 'girlboss feminism.' A subset of women, called 'tradwives,' have now reacted to this swing of the pendulum by moving backwards. An ethical society must exist somewhere in the abyss between or beyond these two extremes. B*TCH EAT DOG explores girlbosses, tradwives, and the existential abyss, in search of an ethical way to navigate the patriarchy.'
Brought to life through puppetry by Seattleite Mel Carter, this visceral comedy will run at the Jade Studio at Greenside Venues 7-29 August 2026. B*TCH EAT DOG is performed with a cast of three and runs 50 minutes. It follows its world premiere at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, a North American tour, and Washington, DC's District Fringe.
About Mel Carter
Mel Carter is a Seattle-born, DC-bred visual artist, puppeteer, and the creator of B*TCH EAT DOG. She has recently completed an MFA in Puppet Arts at the University of Connecticut. She has built and/or performed puppets with the Pilobolus Dance Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, Mosaic Theatre, Paloma Puppet Theatre, and the OddFellows Playhouse, among others. She began her professional career as a resident artist with the 4615 Theatre Company in Washington, DC, where she also performed with Imagination Stage, Spooky Action Theatre, and Pointless Theatre Co. Her visual art has been featured in the Washington Post and published in Cuntry Living. She is a recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Arts and Humanities Fellowship and Color the Curb grant.
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