The Plays

(All plays are written by Mark Beeson except where specified)

Childe the Hunter

The Swallows

The Wilderness

The Unknown

The Therapists

Kitty Jay

Story

The Kitty Jay Project

Loricum

Dartfest 2010

Full-scale stage plays

Click on the underlined plays

for more info

•  The Badgers - 1980

•  Crowhurst - 1983

•  The Hedge - 1984

•  Childe the Hunter- 1986

•  The Swallows - 1987

•  The Green Woman - 1988

•  The Salmon - 1990

•  The Paint Man - 1991

•  The Bees - 1992

•  The Wilderness - 1993

•  The Dragon and the   Mermaid - 1994         (Mock Abbot play written by Lindesay Mace, Kate Oliver, Sadie Butler, Tina Shilston, Ben Yates)

•  Monkey Rock - 1995

•  The Unknown - 1996

•  The British in Exeter - 1997

•  The White Bird of the Oxenhams - 1997

•  A History of Dartmoor Theatre -1998

•  The Audience - 1999 (Written by Lindesay Mace)

•  The Therapists - 1999

•  The Forest Fire - 1999

•  Kitty Jay - 1999   (Created by Gillian Webster and Ruth Way)

•  The Calling of Jan Coo - 1999 (Created by Gillian Webster and Ruth Way)

•  Whale I- 2000

•  Whale II - 2000

•  The 82 - 2000        (Devised by Connie Smith, Jess Avis, Gillian Pipe, Wilf Merttens, Tim Warre, Tom Randall-Page)

•  Monkey Rock II - 2001

•  The Forest on the Hill - 2002

•  Story - 2003              (The Fox of Jay's Grave by Daisy Martinez, Willow by Jaye Noble, Running Water by Heather Holcroft-Pinn, The Sparkly Stone by Maeve O'Neill, A Walk Down the Lane by Laura Wilson, Isolation by Mark Beeson)

•  Melys - 2004

•  Myth - 2004 :

The Calling - written by Jess Avis

Sisters - written by Connie Smith

The Kitty Jay Project - film by Daniel Rayner, Joffy Hall, and Abigail Kingsley-Garner

•  Grave Intimations - 2004 (film directed by Daniel Rayner, choreography mentor Rosalyn Maynard)

•  The Ragged Walkers - 2005 (by John Young)

•  Roots - 2005                (An ecological play devised by 13 young people)

•  Loricum - 2006               (A community play written by nine young people in collaboration with Mark Beeson)

•  The Logan Rock - 2006  (An evening of drama, dance and video performances, presenting work from the Local Network Fund Workshops)

•  High Plateau - 2006 (A production linking Dartmoor with Malawi, through music, poetry and dance, created by Rosalyn Maynard, Gillian Webster and Mark Beeson)

•  Cassiterides - The Romans on Dartmoor -      2007 (A community play set during end of the Roman occupation of Dartmoor, written by Mark Beeson, Daniel Rayner, Daisy Martinez and Laura Wilson)

• Lost Roots - 2007 (A Wild Nights Young Company Film)

• The Children's Castle - 2007 (A promenade performance by the Wild Nights Young Company at Castle Drogo)

• Dartfest 2007 - Dartmoor Festival of Young People's Plays

• Hot Air - 2008 (A community play exploring climate change)

• Dartfest 2008 - Dartmoor Festival of Young People's Plays second year - (Shakespeare on Dartmoor by Amy Young, Clare Hellyer and Tara Boyland with extra scenes by the company, Deceased Truth by the company)

• Snow - 2009 (A play about the winter of 1962-3 on Dartmoor, based on oral history, written by the company)

• All That Was Left Behind... Dartmoor Prison 1815 - A site-specific young people's production performed in Dartmoor Prison Museum's dairy barn

• Hinterland - 2010 (A play about the life of Thomas Tyrwhitt who built Princetown)

• Brown Hare - 2010 (A site-specific dance drama about the ecological and cultural dimensions of Lepus europaeus - mentored by Rosalyn Maynard, Gillian webster and Mark Beeson)

• Dartfest 2010 - Dartmoor Festival of Young Poeple's Plays - fourth year

• No Access - 2011 (A comedy that looks at land-use on Dartmoor, created by a team of writers)

Musical Performances

•  Forest Fantasy - 1990 (Created by Gillian Webster)

•  Upbeat - 2002 (Created and supervised by Gillian Webster, created by Jess Avis, Angela Francis, Nell Hubbard, Clare Lash Williams, Jasmine Leonard, Alice Wimberley, Martha Cunningham-Johnson, Jessica Hingston, Heather Holcroft Pinn, Jaye Noble, Amy Stephens, Neneh Whiting, Elaine Wilson, Laura Wilson, Harry Avis and Saul Jenner)

•  Limen - 2003 (Created by Gillian Webster, Lucy Railton, Tessa Peach and Clare Lash Williams)

Audio Plays

•  The Evil Rider- 2001

•  All Change - 2003 (By Claire Smith)

Some things people have said about MED Theatre

THE SALMON (1990):

'Celebrates, but warns, in lyrical rhyming couplets.a large-scale, wide-ranging play enhanced by some melodic music by Phil Oliver'

The Guardian

THE BEES (1992):

'[The Bees] was a piece of great craftsmanship; highly relevant, highly topical, very amusing, philosophical, entertaining and provocative..this was a very successful production involving much, very much talent and skill, all local, which MED should be well pleased with.'

South West Arts' assessor

THE DRAGON AND THE MERMAID (1994):

'Mark Beeson is an unconventional and highly original playwright. His company is unique.......This is a community play which occurs regularly, giving the actors a chance to improve, to learn and to explore issues in performance.It takes the performance to remind me of what an extraordinary venture this is. Here we have a play in verse, performed by an amateur cast of 45 or so. It is a socio-political play of Shakespearean scope, but recognizing, as Shakespeare rarely did, that the life of a community includes the lives of its children.The play as text is monumental. It marks a point of transition in regional history when stannary towns had to learn the difference between independence and interdependence - and it shows the implications of that in a multi-layered and brilliantly unfolded story...'

Peter Thompson, Professor of Drama at Exeter University

MONKEY ROCK (1995):

'It was a lovely, life-giving occasion which, one has to say, is increasingly rare in a theatre where so much time is spent on fear and worry.'

David Farnsworth, South West Arts and Theatre Consortium Literary Manager

THE UNKNOWN (1996);

'What an undertaking - to deal with such an immense number of characters and complicated theme (like Hardy embarking on The Dynasts) - but so lightly handled, with the dialogue asking to be spoken and keeping the heartbeat of the verse.'

Christopher Fry, author of The Lady's Not for Burning.

MARK BEESON

'Mark Beeson is a widely respected poet, playwright, scholar, editor and indefatigable community theatre animateur. He is deeply committed to the process of enabling local people of all ages to find a distinctive voice and cultural identity through their participation in theatre events and workshops. Mark's contribution to this process takes many forms: as writer, as researcher, as historian, as director. By using community theatre as his artistic focus, he not only gives back the fruits of his own creative work, he also enable others, and particularly young people, to make their own contribution to a unique theatrical voice for Devon. The productions are a joy to attend, not only for the performances on stage, but also for the delight and pride created in the audience as they witness theatre that is truly theirs.'

Donna-Lee Iffla, Former Head of Arts at the Exeter and Devon Arts Centre

Med Theatre