Conceived and directed by Mydd Pharo
Written by Mercedes Kemp and Mydd Pharo
CAST:
Mary Woodvine
Agnieszka Blonska
Bec Applebee
Antonia Kemi Coker
Hannah McPake
Charlotte Merriam
Catrin Walker Booth
Kyla Goodey
Steve Jacobs (Recorded audio)
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM:
Designer – Ellie Williams
Costume Designer – Mydd Pharo
Composer & Musical Director – Benji Bower
Associate Musical Director & Choir Director – Vicky Abbott
Sound Designer – Dan Balfour
Co-Lighting & Video Designers – Joshua Pharo & Sarah Readman
Pyrotechnic Designer – Nathan Jackson
Puppet Maker – Maye Voogd
Choreographer – Jen Fletcher
Producers – Nathan Jackson and Gwen Scolding
Production Manager – Tina Dézart
Production Assistant – Izzy Wilkinson
Company Stage Manager – Kylie Sullivan
Assistant Stage Manager – Jordan Lever
Costume Supervisor – Meier Williams
Costume Maker – Sara Whetherly
Costume Maker – Lucy Seaber
Processional Icons – Designed and made by Sue Hill and Pete Hill with assistance from Sally Smith, Joanna Marschner and Di Hunter.
Community Coordinator – Tori Cannell
Sound Operator – Luke Stockbridge
Sound Engineer – Eliot Allison
Sound Engineer – Jasper Knight
Sound Cover – Eliot Allison
LX 1 – Zoe Beeny
LX 2 – Dom Weeks
Lighting Tech Install Support – Lucy Gaskell
Pyrotechnician / Production Crew – Louie Roberts
Set carpenters – Luke Woods and Dan Richardson
Prop Maker – Michelle Wilkinson
Design Team Assistant – Becky Cottrell-Jury
Production crew – Stuart Carter, Graham Waldern, Pete Adams, Michael Jones, Martin Matthews, Simon Bagnall, Reuben Bagnall, Gwen The Dog]
Marketing/Press Consultant – David Rowe
Marketing – Sophia Medine
Photography – Steve Tanner
On the spoil heaps and ruins of the iconic Geevor Mine, at the end of the land, Wildworks created a new show, the glittering highlight of We Are Shining, our 2024/25 programme celebrating Cornwall’s long traditions of welcoming strangers, of community and outdoor performance.
Cornwall took centre stage in Stranger Beasts, the story of Belerion, a girl born of a cosmic mother and an earth-born father, bound to change the destinies of her land and her people.
Bel grows up wild and motherless, but as she reaches girlhood her ordeal begins. Forced into an unwanted femininity, she is exploited, quarried, gouged and excavated by those who should love her but wish to tame her. But you cannot tame a wild heart. Bel’s stormy rage at her cruel fate brings a Stranger to the shore. Together they will journey through the Thin Place, the boundary between the land and the sea. A liminal space, neither here nor there, where rules are suspended and Bel and the Stranger can find love and acceptance of their strangeness.
Stranger Beasts is a life story and a love story that explores the transformative nature of strangers. A story that reminds us that despite the surface wounds and scars that we all gather through life, sometimes all it takes is the power of a stranger to hold up a magic mirror to reflect and remind us of what potential and strength lies beneath.
A love song to the land. A wild cry to the skies… that you do not have to inhabit the boundaries and confinements you inherited.
A provocation to remain rooted, yet outward facing, Robust and strong. Weathering the past, yet face bare to the future winds that blow inwards. Ready to face the next chapter.
Stranger Beasts has its roots firmly planted in the familiar childhood tale of Beauty and the Beast (English), Cupid and Psyche (Roman/ African), La Belle et la Bête (French), Zelinda and the Monster (Italian), The Maiden and the Beast (Portuguese), The Fairy Serpent(Chinese), The Enchanted Tsarevich (Russian), Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride (English).
Conceived and directed by Mydd Pharo
Written by Mercedes Kemp and Mydd Pharo
Photography by Steve Tanner
