| Description | This collection documents many of Mark Beeson's activities including his personal life, his poetry and playwriting, his primatology research, his archaeological survey of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, and research and writing related to Dartmoor, including records of The Dart Magazine and MED Theatre. The collection contains correspondence; manuscripts, notebooks, and typescripts for poetry, plays and other writing by Mark Beeson; diaries; photographs; school work, and other personal and literary papers. |
| AdminHistory | Born in Powell River, Canada in 1954 to Christopher Beeson, a farmer, and Jane (nee Bowater), an artist and writer, Mark Beeson (1954-2022) spent most of his childhood on a farm in Dartmoor. Mark boarded at Highfield School and Winchester College, before attending Magdalen College, Oxford, initially to study Classics before changing to Human Sciences, and graduating in 1977.
In 1979, his archaeological survey of Widecombe-in-the-Moor was published in collaboration with Michael Masterman for the Devon Sites and Monuments Register. A year later, in 1980, Mark’s poem ‘The Walk’ won a prize in the Arvon Foundation’s first international poetry competition, with Ted Hughes commenting that “both Seamus [Heaney] and myself were very taken by it”. Also in 1980, Mark married Alison Hastie, with whom he had two children: Luke and Teffan.
A prolific writer, poet and playwright from a young age, Mark’s first community play, ‘The Badgers’, was performed in 1980 and followed two archaeologists as they navigated a badgers’ sett. The play explored the government’s policy of badger culling and its impact on Dartmoor and the environment. It would be the first of many community plays written by Mark and performed by MED Theatre during his 30-year tenure as Artistic Director.
In 1981, after working for years to receive external funding, Mark travelled to the Zomba Plateau in Malawi to complete a self-funded study of the blue monkeys native to the area, under the supervision of primatologist Vernon Reynolds. In 1986, Mark’s research on the blue monkeys was awarded an MPhil in primate ecology from the University of Exeter and he was later elected to the Linnean Society. Inspired by the family structures of blue monkeys, Mark founded Manaton and East Dartmoor Theatre (later named MED Theatre), a rural community theatre company, in 1989.
Several of Mark’s plays were adapted or written for radio and produced by BBC Radio 4, including Hound of the Cabells, The Primates (1984), The Therapists (1986), and The Swallows (1989). Most of Mark’s plays were written in verse, and many took inspiration from the mythology and landscape of Dartmoor.
Mark also founded The Dart magazine with his wife, Alison Hastie, and local friends. The magazine began production in 1981 and continued until 2001, publishing articles on subjects such as nuclear disarmament, environmental concerns, local traditions and trades, and other community issues.
Additional information about Mark Beeson's playwriting on the MED Theatre website https://www.medtheatre.co.uk/ [last accessed 25/03/2024] |