A Talk with Bethan Dear: Let the River Heal You

In this episode, host Victoria Chapman (VC Projects)  is joined by Bethan Dear—theatre maker, performance artist, and writer—for a deep and expansive conversation about art, healing, and the currents of life that shape creative practice.

Bethan reflects on her journey as an artist who works across performance, theatre, and writing, weaving personal narrative with collective storytelling. She speaks about the river as a metaphor and as a lived, embodied presence—a place of memory, transformation, and healing. The dialogue traces how landscapes can hold and reveal stories, how performance can act as ritual, and how art becomes a conduit for navigating both joy and grief.

Throughout the conversation, Bethan and Victoria explore the ways art creates space for listening and renewal: how to let go into process, how to find beauty in vulnerability, and how to honor the unseen forces that guide us. From theatre’s capacity to mirror human experience to performance art’s ability to dissolve boundaries between self and environment, Bethan offers insight into practices that are at once deeply personal and universally resonant.

Let the River Heal You is not only a conversation about art—it is an invitation to slow down, to notice the flow around and within us, and to recognize creativity as a river that connects us all.

Bethan Dear first trained as a performer and later as a director. She also writes, creates devised theatre, is a workshop facilitator, storyteller, and clown. She's the artistic director of Jackdaw Theatre and is proud to identify as a woman. She believes deeply in equality for all and is passionate about using theatre for social justice and social change. She has worked professionally in theatre for over 15 years with companies such as Jagged Fence, Nabakov, High Tide, Tamasha, and Tangled Feet. Based in London for a decade, she made work at venues including BAC, Rich Mix, The Almeida, The Finborough, Oval House, and Tara Arts. She’s also been involved in an NT Connections project at the Southbank and attended the National Theatre Studio Directors Course, collaborating with remarkable artists like Maxine Peake, Michelle Terry, Anna Carteret, Katherine Parkinson, Olivia Vinall, among others. Her work has extended to international artists such as The Indian Ensemble, Abhishek Majumdar, Colleen Murphy, and Ben Ellis, and she’s worked extensively in youth theatre in the UK and abroad.

https://www.jackdawtheatre.com