Monkey Rock 2 (2001), written and directed by Mark Beeson, was part of a double bill of plays in MED Theatre’s ‘Performing Dartmoor’ project, which aimed to link Dartmoor to the world at large; connecting humans with their environment.
The play was a sequel to the original Monkey Rock which was performed in 1995, and was itself based on Mark Beeson’s radio play of 1985 The Primates. In this follow-on, Charlotte’s daughter Anna finds herself unable to forget her experience in Africa as a child and sets off to study primates in Everforest. Soon things begin to go wrong and the primatologist Professor Tom Monkhurst finds himself dragged once more into an adventure with the primates and one particularly sinister encounter…
In this Youtube extract (recorded in VHS) Desmond and Solly, pursuing their partners Charlotte and Anita who have abandoned them, land at the airport in Mbongokualazee – where a few hours earlier Professor Tom Monkhurst has been arrested on arrival and put in a prison cell for previously working without a permit. Due to a flash flood, X, who works for an international mining company, has turned up late to meet Monkhurst, but he still expects him to be waiting there.
