A review of ‘Salmon’ performed by MED Theatre’s Young Company on 4th September 2021 at Fingle Bridge Meadows.
After reviewing numerous plays by this incredibly inspiring theatre group I was delighted to be asked to again go along to review another Dartmoor-related performance by the MED company. This time the story was a thought-provoking and very pertinent look at the plight of the salmon whose spawning grounds in the nearby River Teign played such an integral part of this hard-hitting story with its hard-hitting message.
The company has evolved from a tradition of original community plays using local performers, composers, musicians, set designers, costume makers, choreographers back stage technicians and writers. The MED theatre productions are inspired by Dartmoor’s industrial history, striking topography and distinctive ecology combined with the contemporary social challenges faced by residents of the national park. As well as providing thought-provoking entertainment to audiences (made up of both local residents and visitors), the plays dramatise serious social, scientific and environmental issues relevant to Dartmoor, and aim to promote the area's distinctiveness through its culture and its people. This play really did slot firmly and powerfully into the environmental issue which MED are so adept at articulating visually and orally.
Just when you thought that a MED production couldn’t get any better “Salmon” appears and literally takes centre stage! Again and again MED excel themselves and this play followed suit. This was also a ‘first’ for this reviewer…never before has a handkerchief come out of a pocket to assist in stemming a small ‘emotional leakage’!
This play was performed in the meadows beside the flowing Teign at Fingle Bridge - what a wonderful setting with the noise of the river providing such an appropriate background and the near-vertical hill leading up to Prestonbury Hill Fort as a backdrop fit for any national stage. From the very start Amy and Hilda, the central ‘human’ characters, stole the show with their compassionate and complex relationship. While Amy is struggling with growing up, an absent mother and her own emotional wellbeing and mental health issues, all she longs for is to see the salmon leaping along the Teign having completed their long journey from the Atlantic south of Iceland where her mother is working as a marine biologist. Interwoven are the bumbling poachers who bring some light-hearted but also serious issues affecting the salmon. The story, however, never strays from the real message of the plight of these endangered majestic fish with Amy’s desire to see them free and leaping as they have done in the Teign for millennia; and her desire also to be reunited with her mother.
The first half set the scene well and was a wonderful opportunity for the youngest members of the cast to shine and woo the audience with their charm and enthusiasm for what they were doing and engaging with. The second half seemed to fly by in minutes culminating in that wonderful and hoped-for final scene of Amy’s dream to see the salmon leaping, choreographed in an incredible way which I am sure did not leave many dry eyes in the audience. A finale filled full of emotion for her dream come true and the salmon at last free to leap and enjoy what was rightfully theirs along with an emotional reunion with her mother at the eleventh-hour.
Those who choreographed the movement of the salmon deserve a special mention. The simplicity of their costume combined with the precision and discipline of their movements, made anyone who has shared the unparalleled joy of seeing the salmon leaping in our moorland rivers, know that this theatrical performance and portrayal of their lives was just so accurate. The three salmon - Salar, Kelt and Grilse were played and portrayed magnificently, ethereally and accurately.
Perhaps, for me, spending the morning before the play, just strolling and sitting beside the River Teign and engaging in its life, flow and hardships made the play and characters come to life in such a way that there was little difference between Salar, Kelt and Grilse with their real life counterparts whom I have had the joy of watching while walking beside our precious and endangered moorland rivers over the decades. The whole cast and team are to be congratulated for another excellent afternoon’s entertainment, education and enlightenment. This reviewer, for one, is looking forward to their next production as always! I’ll bring a box of tissues if this is an example of things to come!