Sheep attached to a particular fell are described as hefted. They learn to stay in one place from their mothers. People can be hefted, too. The Lake District shepherd James Rebanks is as passionately attached to the landscape that surrounds his Matterdale farm as any ewe, or “yow” as they are called, and her lamb. “Everywhere else feels like nowhere,” he says in Chris Monks’ stage version of Rebanks’ bestseller, which quietly celebrates the pleasure of belonging and the passing of the seasons, and the deep knowledge that death is part of life.
Rebanks’ family has scraped by on this beautiful, unforgiving land for several generations, passing down knowledge of how to choose the best tup and make the best of marginal land. There are many kinds of education and knowledge. Rebanks left school with two GCSEs but got himself to Oxford to study history, before returning to take up his crook again on the fells. He knows that the landscape beloved by Wordsworth and Wainwright and so many since has survived because of all those “nobodies” whose names have been lost to history, but who over the centuries have herded their flocks on the common land of the fells.
Sheep are turning out to be unexpectedly good value theatrically. National
Theatre Wales’ The Gathering turned the annual bringing down of the animals from the mountain into a moving visual spectacle, and now Rebanks’ tale of the rough and tumble of farming and family life finds a home in exactly the right theatre. Martin John’s clever, self-effacing design recognises that the view outside the Theatre By the Lake’s front door offers a greater wow factor than anything even the most lavish set could muster, and when Rebanks (played with an understated charm by Kieran Hill) wryly observes of the day trippers and walkers that “the guests have taken over the guesthouse”, everyone laughs appreciatively.
This gentle, wise evening may be too long but it’s appropriately rough and ready, with a professional cast swollen by a flock of community volunteers. It’s not without theatrical sophistication. When the nine-year-old James is sent off to the barn, he returns a young man; a brilliant bartering scene between Rebanks and an older shepherdess, Jean, is delivered with all the tension of a Pinter play, and Jimmy Grimes’s beautiful dog and sheep puppets are as delightful as anything in War Horse.
- At Theatre By the Lake, Keswick, until 23 April. Box office: 017687 74411.
