Wartime tales will take centre stage - virtual or otherwise
DARTMOOR in wartime will be the subject of new projects from local theatre group MED Theatre, whose 2020 sell-out production of Daughters of Sunset was featured in The Guardian and on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
The company’s 2021 annual community play The Magistrate will see a large community cast on trial for their wartime actions and reactions.
The play is based on true accounts from local people who lived through the Second World War on Dartmoor, and continues MED Theatre’s decade-long tradition of producing new original plays inspired by local people and history.
Depending on Government guidelines, the play will either be performed live at Manaton and Moretonhampstead parish halls next month, or converted into a recorded production.
Meanwhile, MED Theatre’s Wild Nights Young Company has created its own original play based on research into life on Dartmoor during the war.
The Hardings deals with the changing roles of men and women caused by the war and shares the story of one family, their altered relationships and the new people brought into their lives by the war.
The live performances of The Hardings have been cancelled and the youth group is working to turn it into a radio play, to be launched next month.
Devon’s War Girls, a two-hander performance by MED Theatre’s own professional staff actresses, takes inspiration from true local stories explored through the eyes of two young women, a local farmer’s daughter and a newly arrived Land Girl, and the wartime events that bring them together.
This fast-paced performance was launched at the end of 2020 and can be booked for events, schools or community groups to bring alive local stories from the past.
All three performance projects are part of MED Theatre’s Dartmoor Devon and Second World War project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.