Cows about Cambridge

Have you herd?

Photo: RMG Photography

There’s a spectacular, world-class art trail coming to Cambridge…

Local artists, businesses, schools, and community groups have all signed up to be part of an udderly unique art event that’s coming to Cambridge this spring.

Called ‘Cows about Cambridge’, this innovative project will be one of the largest mass-participation art events ever to be held in the city. Some 40 full-size Cow sculptures, each one individually designed by an artist and sponsored by a business, will form a trail of discovery across Cambridge from March 30th until June 6th, encouraging local people to explore and enjoy their environment from an exciting new perspective.

The 10-week art trail will be delivered by creative producers Wild in Art in partnership with local children’s charity Break, and is supported by inaugural sponsor and Principal Partner, Cambridge Business Improvement District (BID). It’s expected to create a feel-good factor for the region, while generating more than £8 million of economic value, promoting wellbeing and an active lifestyle, and facilitating discussions on environmental issues. After entertaining and bringing together communities, the legacy of Cows about Cambridge continues as many of the sculptures will be auctioned to raise vital funds for Break. Cows about Cambridge will involve a large cross-section of the Cambridgeshire community. Schools have adopted and designed their own ‘mini moos’, as part of a county-wide Learning Programme. Community groups also have the opportunity to tell their stories by working with a regional artist to decorate their very own Cow.

Wild in Art has a track record of delivering world-class events that entertain, enrich, inform and leave a lasting legacy. Recent work includes the award-winning Bee in the City for Manchester, Snailspace in Brighton, and GoGoHares in Norfolk, the third in a trilogy of GoGo events with Break.

‘Red Poll cows are part of everyday life in Cambridge,’ explains Ian Sandison, CEO of Cambridge BID. ‘Thousands of local people walk or cycle near their pastureland every day, on their way to work, school and the shops. In choosing Cow sculptures for this innovative, world-class art trail, they will celebrate the uniqueness of our city and encourage new conversations between business and the wider community.’ To find out more visit cowsaboutcambridge.co.uk

Let’s Create the future

Let’s Create. It’s such a simple, but incredibly powerful statement of intent. And it is the perfect way for the Arts Council to embark on a new decade.

On January 27th 2020, we shared Let’s Create. It outlines a vision for the next decade, one in which the creativity of each and every one of us is valued and given the chance to flourish; and where all of us have access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.

Let’s Create may be ‘our’ strategy, but because thousands of people from all ages and backgrounds have contributed, we hope that there is a sense that everyone owns it. And as a result, we hope that everyone will stand with us in delivering its ambitions.

The strategy is an invitation to everyone who believes in the value of arts, culture and creativity to come together and create new opportunities for every person in England to be creative and enjoy brilliant culture.

It builds on the achievements of the last decade, but also gives us the opportunity to take on a development role beyond the organisations we have traditionally funded –embracing the wider culture sector in England.

Over the next ten years we want to put more emphasis on support for artists and independent creatives; and we want to support the cultural sector to generate new ideas, work in partnership and develop talent from every community. And we want to give communities everywhere more opportunity to design and develop the culture on offer to them.

We want everyone to have the chance to be creative at every stage of their lives – from artistic starts of the future through to people who are looking to experience something new in later life, and everything in between.

At its heart, Let’s Create sets out three outcomes that we are looking to achieve.

And these will be underpinned by four Investment Principles, which will steer how we are able to deliver the outcomes.

We know that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Let’s Create sets out an ambition to change that. We want arts organisations, museums and libraries to be an important part of every community; bringing people together, supporting local economies and helping to improve lives. And by doing this, we can ensure England has one of the most innovative, collaborative and international cultural sectors in the world.

Let’s Create – for me it inspires a sense of something exciting and new; a feeling of collaboration and anticipation; and a positive feeling about the future. But that’s me, what does Let’s Create mean to you?

C o f f ee & a Chat 20 | www.artseast.co.uk

Veronica Lee caught up with comedian Mark Steel ahead of his new tour which reaches the Alive Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn in April.

When comic Mark Steel toured his highly successful Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright in 2018, his outlook was wonderfully hopeful despite the show describing when Donald Trump won the White House, the Labour Party seemed a busted flush, Britain voted to leave the EU, and his wife decided to leave him.

Now he's back on the road with a reworked and updated version of the show and he explains how it came about.

‘Stand-up is not like film or theatre in that it can change during the run,’ Mark says. ‘You drop a bit here, and add a bit there, so by the end of the tour you may have a show that's different at least in parts. But the new show is still essentially about me being chipper in the face of some miserable events.’

Would it have been simpler to call it by a different name?

‘Well I quite Like Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright,’ he explains, smiling. ‘I want to keep on with that approach, to persevere with hope when clearly every little thing isn't turning out all right.’

The first section of the show is political material and while Mark, a columnist for The Independent, is famously on the left, you don't have to share his views to agree with his contention that UK politics at the moment are “mental”.

By the time you see him on stage, he says drily: ‘We could all be crawling around eating maggots, for all I know.’

Some of his views may surprise you – ‘I don't condemn people who voted for Brexit, as some do. I don't think they're all idiots and I can see why they came to that conclusion’ – and even admits to a certain regard for the Queen after learning of her disagreement with Margaret Thatcher over apartheid. ‘I don't wish ill on anyone, but Philip's not going to go on for ever, is he?’ he says with a grin. And if she needs a shoulder to cry on…’

And while Mark is not a cruel comic, he does like to have a bit of fun; be warned if your view about Brexit is an angry “Just get it done!” without any thought as to what that actually means. His rejoinder is: ‘You might as well vote to come out of the solar system.’

The show also talks about his wife of 11 years divorcing him. They underwent “mediation” to divide their financial assets and Mark vents his spleen about the process. ‘The way that marriage, or rather divorce, is organised in this country is mad. You're better off under some sort of Sharia system,’ he says and then hoots with laughter at the thought.

‘In mediation, everything is brought down to the cost of things. It encourages people to be unpleasant and greedy, and it struck me that it's the same philosophy that's driven the world over the past few decades. So education, libraries, health and social care all have to have a financial worth; everything is reduced to whether it has a value that can be worked out on a calculator.’

He quipped during the first run of the show that maybe he should be doing the marriage material when he was no longer bitter. Has time healed that? ‘I really hope there wasn't anything in it that sounded like real bitterness,’ Mark says. ‘Most of it is an excuse for me to talk about my own stupid failings - being obsessed with sport and being completely incapable of completing the simplest task that involves anything mechanical, like pulling out the leaf on a table, or hanging a picture on a hook that's already on the wall.’

Some of his ex-wife's grounds for divorce also lend themselves to comedy: he never cut the privet hedge (not a euphemism); he hadn't trained the dog; he went on tour (he is a comic after all).

But things are good with his ex-wife. ‘It's all resolved now, I don't hold any bitterness at all. You meet people sometimes and 10 years on [from a divorce] they're still grumbling about it. I think maybe there should be a time limit on it – maybe like a Withdrawal Agreement.’

The comic's audience is a broad church. Many listen to his long-running Radio 4 show, Mark Steel's In Town, but he also has a younger following from the short films he posts on YouTube, and his amusingly waspish Twitter feed.

Twitter is both a vexation and a source of amusement. ‘There is not one single selection of words that you can put on Twitter that someone wouldn't go berserk about. If I tweeted, 'I'm enjoying a beautiful sunset in Dorset' I can guarantee someone would reply, 'Not so beautiful if you suffer from sunset aversion in Dorset syndrome, it's not. Have a thought for SADS sufferers, Mark’.’

While he's on the road Mark will be working on his new book; it stems from a previous show, Who Do I Think I Am?, which was about tracing his birth parents after being adopted as a child. ‘I’m filling in the gaps,’ he says, ‘..and there are a lot of gaps to fill. The book is about the whole adoption thing.’

Now happily single, he lives in south London with his son, Elliot, 22, who is also a stand-up, and his teenage daughter, who accuse him of being grumpy. ‘I can be a grumpy old git,’ Mark admits. ‘But I'm quite chirpy at the moment. Life is good.’

Mark Steel is at the Alive Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn on April 15th.

Eric & Ern at The Apex, Bury From the Oliviernominated duo behind the hugely celebrated and critically acclaimed West End hit Eric & Little Ern, this is a show for everyone from 8 to 108. It's a brilliant homage, crammed full of Morecambe and Wise's most loved routines, songs and sketches and, of course, a musical guest. This wonderful show - coming to The Apex, Bury St Edmunds on March 19th - evokes memories of times when whole families would huddle around the telly to watch those fantastic Christmas specials. As seen on The One Show, BBC 1 and The Alan Titchmarsh Show. www.theapex.co.uk

Band of Gold: Cambridge Arts Theatre Based on Kay Mellor’s multi award-winning TV series of the 1990’s, Band of Gold revolves around a group of women –Carol, Rose, Anita and Gina as they battle to survive while working the notorious red-light district with a killer on the loose. Watched by over 15 million people each week when it aired, Band of Gold ran for three series from 1995 to 1997 and starred Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, Barbara Dickson and Samantha Morton. Band of Gold stars Gaynor Faye, best known for her roles as Megan Macey in Emmerdale and Judy Mallett in Coronation Street. The show also stars Laurie Brett best known for her roles as Jane Beale in EastEnders, and Christine Mulgrew in Waterloo Road. Joining Faye and Brett are Shayne Ward (Coronation Street, Rock of Ages, The X-Factor), Kieron Richardson (Hollyoaks, Heartbeat), Sacha Parkinson (Mr. Selfridge, The Mill), Andrew Dunn (Dinnerladies, The Full Monty) and Emma Osman (Burning the House Down, Doctors). www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

Poet Luke Wright on Tour

Talented poet Luke Wright is on tour and coming to a theatre near you. The Remains of Logan Dankworth is the third and final instalment of Luke Wright’s trilogy of political verse, looking at trust and privilege in the age of Brexit. Logan Dankworth, newspaper columnist and Twitter warrior, grew up romanticising the political turmoil of the 1980s. Now, as the EU Referendum looms he is determined to be right there in the fray of the biggest political battle for years. Meanwhile, Logan’s wife Megan wants to leave London to find a place to better raise their daughter. As tensions mount at home and across the nation, something is set to be lost forever. The first two plays in the trilogy, What I Learned from Johnny Bevan and Frankie Vah, won praise from critics and audiences alike. Luke Wright is a poet and theatre maker who has been writing and performing his work all over the world for 20 years. Acknowledged as one of Britain’s top stand-up poets, he is one of the principle architects of the now thriving spoken word scene. His tour takes in The Corn Hall Diss (March 13th), Framlingham FAYAP Youth and Arts Centre (March 14th), Felixstowe’s Two Sisters Arts Centre (March 20th), New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (June 4th) and Holt’s Auden Theatre (July 29th). www.lukewright.co.uk

Bungay welcomes Arthur Miller Classic Open Space Theatre Company bring Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge to The Fisher Theatre Bungay from April 17th-18th. Eddie Carbone struggles to allow Catherine, the orphaned niece he has nurtured and who is now on the cusp of womanhood, to go out into the wider world. His inner turmoil increases as she falls in love with one of the two illegal immigrants he and his wife are sheltering. Can Eddie accept the inevitable or will his stubborn obsession turn to tragedy? Set in the 1950s in the shadow of one of New York’s landmark buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, this is one of Arthur Miller’s greatest plays. www.fishertheatre.org

Andy Parsons: Healing the Nation Two years since his last tour, household name and nonsense-nailer Andy Parsons is back on the road with his tour ‘Healing the Nation’ – and Andy is confident that playing to a whole host of theatres across the UK will undoubtedly mend the myriad divisions this country faces. If current media tropes are to be believed, everybody exists in their own social media bubble and are up in arms about everything – be it Brexit/climate change/transgenders/ badgers. So head to the Alive Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn on March 22nd and celebrate what it means to be British in 2020 – freedom of speech, tolerance, tolerance of freedom of speech, freedom of intolerant speech, less freedom with more intolerant speech, but still some tolerance. www.kingslynncornexchange.co.uk

Matthew Bourne Classic in Norwich Matthew Bourne’s beautiful and double Olivier Award-winning adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale The Red Shoes is set to thrill audiences again at Norwich Theatre Royal from February 18th-22nd. Based on the 1948 Academy Award-winning movie starring Moira Shearer as the girl who dreamed of being a dancer, The Red Shoes first toured the UK in 2016 and visited Norwich in February 201 7 . It is a tale of obsession, possession and one girl's dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men who insp ire her passion. The intoxicating drama shows life imitating art with fateful consequences, and it is set to dazzle senses and brea k hearts. This new revival from Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company features a host of dancers from the original production. The show spent seven weeks at Sadler’s Wells over the Christmas period and now heads out on tour. www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk

Coming up at The Fisher Theatre

FISHER – THEATRE –

Swan Lake from the Royal Ballet (Live Streaming) Wednesday 1st April 2.15pm £13-50

Back to the 80s with Black Box Disco Fisher Theatre Fundraiser Saturday 4th April 7.30pm £8 (18 years+ only) Fisher Folk & Acoustic Wednesday 29th April 7.30pm £5

Solo Beatles Friday 3rd April 7.30pm £12/£10

Talk

UEA Talk: Digital Futures-The Dark Side of the Digital Age Thursday 9th April 7.30pm £5

Open Space Theatre Company - a View from the Bridge Friday 17th April 7.30pm £12/£9.50

www.fishertheatre.org The Fisher Theatre,10 Broad Street, Bungay, NR35 1EE Box Office: 01986 897130