"It is remarkably light."

Officials said the festival would also see the world premiere of a performance entitled There's No Clock in the Forest, by displaced people currently living in York.They said the performance would blend the Ukrainian play Mavka (The Forest Song), with texts from Shakespeare, which celebrated the natural world "and reflected on exile, mythology, and environmental change".

Festival director Philip Parr said: "These are certainly strange times. War, corruption, moral dilemma."The responsibility of theatre makers in our times is no different from that of Shakespeare: to tell the stories of the time and place, and to reflect the world around us."He added: "Shakespeare belongs to the world, and this year, that global conversation feels more vital than ever."

The festival runs from 22 April to 4 May.A company which has made crystal glasses for James Bond films has warned heritage crafts are "at a crossroads".

Cut crystal glass-making was added to the Heritage Crafts charity's list of

Chris Blade, the CEO of Cumbria Crystal, said the Ulverston-based company's bills had increased by 280% since November because of rising energy costs.Being able to predict sea conditions - especially the type of waves hitting beaches - would be critical.

"If you have a landing craft, it's much shorter than the length of the big swell waves that come off the Atlantic Ocean, so there was a risk that if it dived down in a swell wave it wouldn't come back up," explained the physical oceanography professor."Understanding whether there were going to be swell waves or just small choppy water was really important, so they could do the landing at the right time."

It was here that Darbyshire excelled within what was known as the top secret Group W in Teddington.He came up with a way to model wave patterns using iron buoys in the sea, and measuring their magnetic movements.