Loricum: new Dartmoor community play

This new community play was written by nine teenage writers in collaboration with playwright Mark Beeson, as the culmination of MED Theatre's Wild Nights-Young Company project. It involved nineteen young actors working alongside adults in a cast of thirty two, with professional input from composer Gillian Webster, choreographer Rosalyn Maynard, costume designer Fiona Avis and artists Olivia Young and Sandy Berridge.

Loricum is a play which contrasts the experience of two generations growing up on Dartmoor. The building of a reservoir divides the community and covers up a secret. When film director Leon comes to make a documentary about the reservoir, he begins to uncover what lies beneath its dark surface.

There were six performances in Dartmoor village halls in March 2006.

REHEARSALS IN PROGRESS:

LORICUM PERFORMANCES, March 2006:

Taken from the Loricum programme

About eighteen months ago Wild Nights-Young Company was born. At out initial meeting there was talk of a collaboration with Mark Beeson, our director, which would end in 2006. None of us could picture the end result. Yet after two trips onto the high moor with Devon Discovery, a trip to Yarner Wood, months of Tuesday nights devising, and sheer hard work, we produced Roots and we knew we were halfway there.

     As a starting point for Loricum, we were given the phrase: 'While there is still dance and time', and were intoduced to the characters of Tom and Amy. From that we created a backstory, and added additional characters such as Leon, the film director, and Helena, the daughter of Amy. We devised, improvised, scripted and discussed until we knew these characters as if they were old friends.

     Now Loricum is here, and I, on behalf of the Wild Nights Young Company, am writing to inform you of the hard work and pure enthusiasm that has gone into this project. We have given 100% of ourselves and I feel that this is refelcted in the play. After all the laughter, the thought and the exhaustion, this is the end result, and we hope that you enjoy the production, which I'm sure will be a memorable chapter in MED Theatre's history.

Laura Wilson, Wild Nights Young Company member.

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Wild Nights-Young Company is financially supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots programme, the Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund, West Devon Borough Council and Devon County Council. The project is delivered in partnership with English Nature and Dartmoor National Park Authority.