The origins of MED Theatre lie as far back as a play called The Badgers, written by playwright Mark Beeson, which was performed by a group of friends from the Dartmoor area in 1980, directed by Dartington theatre graduate Heather Todd. The Badgers, a play whose subject matter displayed a parallel between ecological and social issues on Dartmoor, was a distillation of six months’ fieldwork on Dartmoor during 1979 when Mark took part in a survey of attitudes to archaeological sites in the parish of Widecombe-in the-Moor. The play was rehearsed on a natural granite ‘stage’ on Easdon Tor, near Mark Beeson’s home, and was performed before invited audiences in Easdon barn and in a private theatre at Poundsgate.
Mark Beeson, Easdon Farmhouse in 2017
By Chris Chapman
Read a blog about the archive of Mark’s writing and research by Exeter University Cataloguing Archivist, Hollie Piff, here:
Mark Beeson (1954 – 2022), MED Theatre’s Founder and Artistic Director
“Wherever I go I feel your presence – in the wind that breathes over peat and heather, in the rivers that weave their spirit through the pools, in the tender rays of the level sunset…”
From MED Theatre’s ‘Daughters of Sunset’
A playwright and anthropologist who grew up on Dartmoor, Mark read classics at university before switching to human sciences and working as a primate ecologist. He conducted and published research into the history of Dartmoor and its mythology. As a writer, he read his long poem, The Blue Monkeys of Zomba, on BBC Radio 3, had four plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and had written a book on Dartmoor for the Countryside Commission. Through MED Theatre he created nearly fifty community plays, working extensively with teenagers and in primary schools as a workshop leader and director. Mark was the original founder of MED Theatre and was in the role of Artistic Director until the time of his death in February 2022.
This experience, combined with time away studying blue monkeys on a mountain in Malawi, led Mark to focus on writing original drama specifically for and about the place where he was brought up. His next play, The Hedge, was written as an entry to community theatre exponent Ann Jellicoe’s Village Community Play Competition, held in 1982. A cast and crew were found to produce this play in conjunction with Phil Oliver, who subsequently began the development of MED Theatre’s strong musical tradition, and it was performed in April 1984 in Manaton Parish Hall. Mark went on to write three more plays specifically for performance in Manaton Parish Hall.
In the light of the success of these productions, including The Swallows which transferred to BBC Radio 4, The Manaton and East Dartmoor Theatre was formally constituted and registered as a charity in January 1989, the first dedicated Dartmoor Theatre organisation, supported initially by a grant from the Carnegie UK Trust.