By Izzy Wilkinson, Production Co-ordinator for Wildworks.
When I was seventeen, I tentatively signed up to be a part of the community ensemble in a show called Wolf’s Child. I had read that it was taking place outside in the woods and I remember thinking that was rather strange. I begged my mum to drive me to the middle of nowhere on the Lizard for the recruitment day one Saturday, where she waited in the car, while I pranced about in a stretch tent pretending to be a crow with a cockney accent. We listened to the team describe an extraordinary theatrical experience through the wilderness, and tell fond tales of a man called Bill, their captain and friend, who they had very recently lost. They invited us into their tribe, and asked us whether we would like to join them on their journey. I had absolutely no idea how it could possibly work. It sounded exhausting, messy. The site was miles away from anything.
I was hooked.
That evening, I managed to persuade my incredibly generous mum to agree to drive me there every week for rehearsals, but soon enough, even she couldn’t escape it. She had been adopted by the design team, very willingly dragged from the car park to the making tent, and so began our unforgettable first summer with Wildworks.
I’m not very good at explaining my feelings around taking part in that show, but you could have left me in the woods at Trelowarren Estate for ever. The things I remember most vividly are: the raucous joy of group warm-ups before the show, that one night when a biblical level of rain fell and flooded the site, goosebumps during the final fire-lit procession, and howling at the end of the show for Bill Mitchell. A man I had never met, but back then and more so to this day, feel eternally grateful to and somehow connected.
After a slight detour, I find myself back at Wildworks eight years later. Thankfully for everyone involved, not a cockney crow anymore, but instead working behind the scenes supporting administration and production. The job can be tough at times, with long days and busy projects to deliver, but it never fails to be rewarding. I feel lucky to work for something I believe in, supporting artists I truly think make a lasting impact with what they create. I know that from first-hand experience.
When I walked into the office on my first day last year, Mydd Pharo, who designed Wolf’s Child in 2017 and was Artistic Director of Wildworks 2020-2024, gave me the biggest hug and said ‘welcome home’.
Admittedly now I’m twenty-five, my memories of Wolf’s Child 2017 have begun to fade around the edges, but the songs still echo around my head from time to time and I often stumble across visual nods to the show in my dreams. The world stuck, and so did the people, the whole experience. I think that’s what Wildworks does. It tempts you out of your comfort zone into the landscape with stories, community, fire and song, then even after you return to your daily life and dry off out of the rain, a part of you stays connected to that place. Whether it be the woods, the beach, some wasteland, a part of you stays in the wild. Something about that feels quite important to me in the context of our modern world today. Everything here can feel very noisy, but out in the wild it’s much quieter.
I do a lot of standing in the rain nowadays, but I don’t mind it. I think 2017 Izzy would be pretty chuffed.
Thank you to everyone at Wildworks who has made me feel at home x
Photography by Steve Tanner
