MED Theatre’s 2015 community play, Badgerland, took a comic look at Dartmoor’s contemporary climate, both ecological and political. As well as badger culling, other pertinent topics explored in the play included the proposed new railway line through the southwest and the lack of amenities for local teenagers living on the moor.
‘Mark Beeson, the well known and respected playwright of Easden, has once more pulled off an imaginative and thought provoking triumph… what made it a particular pleasure was seeing the wide age range and the involvement of young adults and children discussing major topical issues in a way which reflects their own problems and concerns’ (James Crowden – Western Morning News, March 18th 2015)
In March 2015 Dartmoor’s badgers joined forces in the ‘Campaign for Badger Independence’, in the hope that an independent ‘Badgerland’ would put an end to the threat of culling on Dartmoor. Having lured two peat-digging archaeologists into their sett, they soon coerce badger-hating Professor Tintin Mills to front the ‘Better Together’ campaign, in return for tin and the promise of unimpeded archaeological freedom through Dartmoor’s soil. Now Dartmoor’s inhabitants are all set for an inter-species referendum, but that’s not forgetting the hedgehogs, advocates for a Mother State who will clamp down on badger appetites…
Badgerland toured Manaton, Belstone, Mary Tavy and Moretonhampsetad from the 13th-21st March and included an intergenerational cast of actors from Dartmoor communities.
