18:30, Sat 20th – Sun 21st June 2026 at Newnham College Gardens
17:30, Mon 22nd June 2026 at Newnham College Gardens
Easter Week 7 to May Week
The summer solstice: Drought has come and the fenlands are draining. In a wood at the edge of the marsh, a group of travelling musicians camp for the night and tell each other stories. Weatherall and Rambler are wandering through the dark searching for a nook to sleep in. A fen ferryman and an amber collector turn them away and confusing directions are given by a pair of blues-playing bees. At a house among the trees, a newlywed couple furnish the wanderers with the last of their food and water. But something strange is happening: wine cups refill themselves, platters multiply, and crumbs turn into three-tiered cakes.
The Ash Tree reimagines Ovid’s tale of Baucis and Philemon as a roaming folk-play concert about the birth of the Granta river and the day the trees of Newnham Gardens first took root.