‘Williamson and the Otters’ was created by MED Theatre’s Young Company in August 2013, inspired by Devon author Henry Williamson and his book ‘Tarka the Otter’. The film accompanied the Young Company production ‘Road to Nowhere‘ in November 2013. The research, choreography, filming, devising and editing of the film where all undertaken by MED Theatre’s Young Company, with the help of an additional dance workshop led by Rohanna Eade.
When Henry Williamson returned to England after the First World War he was traumatised from his experience of fighting in the trenches. He took refuge in Devon’s landscape and soon became captivated by the elusive life of the wild otter. He reputedly spent a large part of his time crawling head first through the fields and rivers of Dartmoor and North Devon, eager to gain an ‘otter’s-eye-view’ of the world. ‘Williamson and Otters’ was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of MED Theatre’s Dartmoor in World War One project.
In June 2016 MED Theatre’s Young Company performed Williamson And The Otters live at High Heathercombe’s EDGE Sculpture Trail festival