Arts Features

Devon recently experienced some of the worst weather conditions in decades so the choice of snow as the subject of a theatre production touring venues across the county seems very topical.

But instead of the winter of 2009 the MED Theatre's production of Snow will evoke memories of the early 1960s, where adults would remember 20ft snow-drifts, animals frozen to death and trains buried underneath sheets of flurry.

There will be six performances of the show

Those memories remain with Mark Beeson, who created the play along with the help of 12 members of Dartmoor's local community.

"Co-ordinating and collating the many strands of this script has brought much of it back to me in a strangely immediate way – helped by the recent heavy fall of snow on Dartmoor this winter," said Mark.

"I remember taking bales of hay on a sledge with my father up onto the common to feed the blackface sheep.

"I remember watching sheep being dug out of the snow. I remember the snow filling up the lanes to the top of the hedges. I remember the pain of coming in from outside when my numb hands and feet began to feel again," he added.

Snow is part of the theatre’s trans-generational project The Last Great Winter which was compiled from research about the harsh winter of 1962/63 and while documenting such events there were bound to be some ordeals.

The topic is timely given recent snowfall

"One of the challenging parts of preparing the script was to communicate to the young writers the customs of the time - for example the type of music in the charts during 1962 and early 1963 - but in the end they were able to create highly imaginative and insightful pieces of work," said Mark.

MED Theatre tries to place young people at the centre of each project and for the young team of helpers working on the production of Snow, the investigation of weather and how it has changed over the past half a century is central to the project.

No doubt the cold winter of 2009 has helped the younger generation understand the impact of extreme weather conditions and assisted their understanding of the memories of that harsh winter almost 50 years ago.

The play has received sponsorship from the Met Office as well as R.K.Shipman, and a grant from Councillor Morgan of Teignbridge District Council.

MED Theatre's Dartmoor Elements programme, of which The Last Great Winter is part, is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Performance dates for Snow:

Manaton Parish Hall: Saturday 7 March 2009
Newton Abbot Coombeshead Community College: Tuesday 10 March 2009
Belstone Village Hall: Wednesday 11 March 2009
Exeter, Westexe Technology College: Thursday 12 March 2009
Moretonhampstead Parish Hall: Friday 13 March/ Saturday 14 March 2009.

*Top image: Dartmoor Archive. Original image © Manaton Community History Group