The Tempest
13th — 19th June 2024
Schumacher College • Vire Island, Totnes • Crediton Arts Centre • The Earthouse, Cranbourne • Ashburton Arts Centre • Knackershole Garden Theatre, Dulverton
"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves. You demi-puppets that by moonshine do the green sour ringlets make. And you whose pastime is to make midnight mushrooms - by your aid I have bedimm’d the noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, and ’twixt the dark Dart and the silver sky set roaring war!”
Twelve years hence, was the sorceress Prospero duchess of Devonia – but betrayed and exiled by her brother Antonio, she and her infant daughter Miranda arrived on a seemingly uninhabited island in the middle of the Dart River. There, Prospero honed her magic arts whilst Miranda grew up amidst secret sprites and spirits: Ariel, an ethereal songster in Prospero’s service; Caliban, the fiery-hearted witch’s daughter; and a troop of tricksy nymphs who inhabit the isle. When a ship carrying the King of Albion and her treacherous brother Antonio sails past one day, Prospero uses sorcery to call down a mighty storm and shipwreck them. Thus, her long-harboured plan for revenge is set in motion – and for the first time, Miranda is about to meet another human.
Ruby Sage and Rivka Green's new iteration of William Shakespeare'sThe Tempest transplants the play from its Mediterranean setting to an island in the Dart River in Devon. Local folklore and ecology interweave with elemental alchemy, river nymphs, and strange beings of the silt in this Albion-based adaptation of Shakespeare’s fantastical tragicomedy. Presented by a collective of circus artists, musicians, and specialist performers from across the South West, The Tempest promises a Summer’s night of murky magic and mystical mischief. You will be invited to experience Shakespeare in a ritual, immersive, and timeless setting, which explores what his writing can offer to movements of ecological stewardship and folklore revival.
The Four Branches
the Mabinogion retold
11 November 2023
North Woods, Dartington, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 6EH
The Four Branches of the Mabinogion tells the mythological saga of the Old Gods of Wales, gods who once trod across these wild isles. For one day in the thin-veil time of silvery late-autumn Samhain, these gods will be called on to walk once more through the Northwoods of Dartington, enlivened through music, dance, theatre, poetry, and storytelling.
Developed by students on the Poetics of Imagination, MA at Schumacher College, and featuring original work by Alice Oswald, Peter Oswald, and Valentin Gerlier, The Four Branches will explore theatre as ritual, experiment with site-and-season-specific playmaking, and blend ancient myth with contemporary performance practice.
The audience will be led on a walking route through the Northwoods by bardic guides, along which the twists and turns of this ages-old tale will be revealed in a range of mediums. For tales of Otherworldly kings, severed heads who talk, mists that eat the world, and a woman who is flowers and then a woman and then an owl, come to the woods on November 11th at 1pm!
Please note: An intention behind this project is spark seasonal connection! For this reason, we will be going ahead with the performance no matter the weather (bar a serious downpour). The Four Branches is presented through a Level 1 forest walk suitable for most, however please be prepared for extended time outdoors and on-foot.
The Will of the Wild Birds
12 August 2023
The Glade, North Woods, Dartington, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 6EH
“I am not happy without you, Maud."
"Oh yes, you are, because you make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness, and are happy in that. Poets should never marry. The world should thank me for not marrying you!"
This is the story of Willie and Maud.
Presented for the first time as the final product of a dissertation for Schumacher College’s Poetics of Imagination MA, The Will of the Wild Birds tells the true tale of the turbulent friendship between the 19th-century poet W.B. Yeats and the Irish rebel Maud Gonne.
Set in the leafy twilight of the Glade's open-air stage and starring multi-talented performance duo Rivka Green and Roddy Sim, the play promises an evening of myth, magick, and mysticism; ritual, romance and revolution.
Watch the clipshow here.
The Skogsrå’s Daughter
March 2022
The Skogsrå’s Daughter is a storytelling performance submitted for the 2nd Year Writing for Solo Performance Module at Central School of Speech and Drama. It tells the story of Groa: the daughter of a hunter and a Skogsrå, a forest spirit of Swedish folklore.