26 | July 11, 2013 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

SHAKESPEARE fever is definitelybeginning to hit Cambridge.This year’s Cambridge ShakespeareFestival has already kicked off andnow The Globe is paying a visit –and it’s bringing Geoffrey from TheFresh Prince with it! Cue a wholelot of 90s kids suddenly taking aninterest in the Bard.Currently touring the UK andEurope, and directed by BillBuckhurst, the outdoor productionof King Lear is complete with anElizabethan style stage and velvetycurtains – they do it properly thisGlobe lot. Hence why they cancommand the use of the Master’sGarden at Corpus Christi College forthe spectacle.For those who weren’t subjected tohours of Shakespeare at school (toomany essays have been written onMacbeth for it to ever be enjoyableagain: fact), King Lear is Will’sultimate tragedy.It starts with Old King Lear of

England, ageing and tired of hisroyal duties, proposing to dividehis kingdom between his threeconniving, flattering daughters.But, what was a generous idea intheory, in practice throws up crueltyand anguish. Too late Lear realiseshe has lived by false values andsuccumbs to madness. The questionis, can you ever see anyone truly forwhat they are?It is the fifth year the Globe Theatreon Tour has visited CambridgeUniversity’s college gardens, so,if you’ve missed Henry V, AnneBoleyn, As You Like It and Hamlet,Lear might be tempting. It mightbe even more tempting once youdiscover the Play and punt packagethe Arts Theatre is offering. Puntdown the Cam with a tour guidethen settle down under a blanketat Corpus Christie. We’ll be takingsnacks.

King Lear

The critical list: more hot ticketsTheatreRound-up

� A STUNT rider will be wowing atthe Kimbolton Country Fayre thisSunday (July 14). Flyin’ Ryan (wepresume his real name), will join adog display team, a Civil war re-enactment group and a mobile farm(we’ve been promised giant rabbits,goats and donkeys to feed), plus aPunch and Judy show. There will alsobe a carousel, classic cars, swingmusic and dancing – or you could justhead to the beer and tea marquee forhomemade cake. The fun kicks off at11am and tickets cost £18 families, £8adults, £5 concession on the door.

� ROOTS folkster Jess Morgan isappearing at the Cambridge FolkClub on Friday (July 12), ahead of theCambridge Folk Festival later this month.The Norwich born singer-songwriterperforms her own stuff (stories in aclassic, 1970s style) and is beginningto turn industry heads. BBC Radio 2’sSteve Lamacq said: “Every so oftenyou come across a little gem like this!”She’ll be supported by The Ashby andJones Band, a country and western,folk and bluegrass duo with a knack forfoot tapping tunes. Catch all the actionat the Golden Hind on Milton Road,Cambridge. Tickets cost £9 on the door.

� ALL aboard for the Haverhill HistoricTransport Rally and Road Run onSunday, July 14! The Town Hall CarPark will be taken over by vehiclefanatics between 10am and 5pm,with more than 150 rare trucks, cars,lorries, buses and military vehicleson show. You’ll be able to grab a rideon an old fashioned open top bus(for free!), and at 11.30am vintage carowners will be off on a mini villageroad trip. Plus, you can head into theArts Centre for drinks and archivefilms.

� JAZZ at a garden centre mightsound like a strange mix but apparentlyScotsdales in Great Shelford reckonsit works. Tonight (July 11), the gardencentre will be hosting their annualSummer Jazz Evening complete withwine and snacks. From 6pm until 8pmyou can settle in for some live music,a glass of something fruity and feel ohso sophisticated while perusing thepeonies. Call (01223) 842777 for moredetails.

� PINT-sized buccaneers and miniadventurers with a hearty desire totravel the high seas are in for a treatthis weekend. The Cambridge TouringTheatre is bringing its take on RobertLouis Stevenson’s classic coming ofage story, Treasure Island, to EastTown Park in Haverhill for an outdoortheatre extravaganza. Expect music,rambunctious antics and feel free todress up for the occasion. It starts at5pm on Saturday, July 13 and ticketscost £6.50 from (01440) 714140.

Books

THE Fens are the topic ofan intriguing talk in Elynext week by author Ian D

Rotherham.The professor of environmental

geography at Sheffield HallamUniversity has studied landscapeand ecological history for morethan 30 years, and admits: “Oneof my passions is the wetlands.I got very, very interested inFenlands and Fenland drainage.”

Hence his latest book, TheLost Fens: England’s GreatestEcological Disaster, whichexplores the factors that led tothe drainage of the Fens and whatit was like before. “It’s kind oflike a whodunit?” he explains. “Iwanted to know who did it, why,when they did it and how theydid it.”

He started by researchinghistorical

accounts fromtravellerswhodescribedthe peopleand thelandscape,

land owners’records

documenting what they shotand ate, and even some “ratherfantastic feast day menus”:“There was one in York for theenthronement for the ArchBishop of York for example, andwe’ve got a list of everything theyate, which is like 400 bitterns, 200spoonbills and a thousand egrets– all taken from the local Fen.”

It’s not only the southern Fensthat make an appearance, but

northern Fens too which existedround the Humber but arenow “gone from memory”. Ianexplains that their ecologies andhistories are linked despite thedistance.

And it’s a funny old history,filled with tales of ordinarypeople making a living off thewaterways, criminals hidingout and disease spreadingsickness and prejudice: “The

Fens were always these centresfor resistance, for outlaws,for nonconformists, so it wasactually a political reason to getrid of them, to drain the land, toturn it to production but for thelandowner, not the commoner.”

Ian will also be discussing theFens as they are today. “We’regetting things like the GreatFen Project, and there’s WickenFen,” he muses. “But there’s noway we can actually turn thisback, you can’t turn the clockback, we wouldn’t want tobecause the farmland area is veryimportant to people, but thereare consequences of what we’vedone. Land is shrinking, sea levelis rising…

“We need to be aware of whatwe’ve done and the consequencesin the longer term.”

He adds: “The other thing I tryto do is get people, through theeyes of the people writing in the1300s and 1400s, into the Fenitself, to visualise what it was like,and I don’t think it was like goingto an RSPB or farm trust naturereserve.

“It was this vast intractablesluggishly meandering set ofrivers with huge areas of wetwoodland

“It’s almost beyond belief thesize of it, it’s about 3-5,000kmof wetland and we just can’tconceive that.” But it’s definitelyworth a try.

The Lost Fenswith Ian Rotherham

� King Lear, Cambridge Arts Theatre,The Master’s Garden, Corpus ChristiCollege, Wednesday, July 17 – Saturday,July 27 at 7.30pm. Tickets £20 from(01223) 503333 / cambridgeartstheatre.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk

� The Lost Fens with Ian Rotherham,Topping and Company Booksellers, Ely,Thursday, July 18 at 7.30pm. Tickets £5– £6 from www.toppingbooks.co.uk

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