Gideon Reeling

No Man is an Island was the first of 6 consecutive years creating and curating the theatre in the woods for Camp Bestival
Each year the village popped up in a different era of its history, the descendants and antecedants of our locals morphing year on year to the delight of the roaming audience.
Produced and Designed by Kate Hargreaves and Livi Vaughaun

No Man is an Island  was an occupied Post War Village struggling to get by: This first reel around the woods at Camp Bestival saw us naming the area the Dingly Dell with great hopes for it to be historic and twinkly.

In the beautiful woodland surroundings and the little boggy islands we created a strange village with a post office and pulley system, tin baths and TVs.

“The inhabitants of the wood continued about their nightly business, the bread baked in the Bakers, the night mail was sorted and the telly was on. But the outer forces watched everything and the security; patrolled. The big dark village was growing and no one was quite sure, anymore, who ruled which roost.”

The nightime promenade around the woods was accompanied by live acoustic music fromTablesale and Perhaps Contraption, woven through this soundtrack a tale of twistedness and petty rivalry unfolded for adults and big kids after the main stages closed until the wee hours.

Performed by:  Al Wingham, Matthew Blake, Pauline Huguet, Alfie Boyd, Hetty Burton, Kate Hargreaves, Rob Wilson, Elizabeth Bichard,  Emlyn Roberts,Bec Watt, Perhaps Contraption, Lisa Roberts, Margarita Zafrilla Olayo
Designers: Luke Montgomery, Beatrice Minns, Holly Steidl, George Ellison,  Dicken Bevan, Kate Rigby, Andy Kobelinsky, Sinan al Jawad.
Photographs: Sinan al Jawad.