The Mikron Theatre Company is an English touring theatre company, founded in 1972, which is notable for its tours by canal boat during the summer months, and by road in the spring and autumn. [1] [2] The company believes itself to be the only theatre company in the world which tours by narrowboat. [3]
The company had its origins in an Edinburgh Fringe show in 1963. The name "Mikron", as well as being a Greek word meaning "small", is derived from the names of the trio who went to Edinburgh in 1963: MIKe Lucas, Sarah CameRON and RON Legge. [2] In 1972 the company performed its first waterways-themed production, and in 1975 it acquired its narrowboat, Tyseley. [4]
Mikron's archives are held at Heritage Quay, the archive collection of the University of Huddersfield. When initially deposited in 2015 the archive comprised: "29 standard boxes, 13 plastic crates, 9 odd sized boxes, 9 backdrops, 8 carrier bags, 7 LP boxes, 5 boards, 2 portfolios, 1 sign". [5]
The company is based in the town of Marsden, in West Yorkshire, although it spends the summer touring throughout the UK canal network. [2] [4] [6] It claims to be "the UK's most prolific theatre company", performing in over 130 venues each year, and by the end of 2024 estimates that it will have boated for 35,686 hours and travelled 567,000 miles (912,000 km) by road. [2]
We have performed at allotments, care homes, community centres, dry docks, festivals, lifeboat stations, pubs, rallies, restaurants, village halls, Youth Hostels. We’ve even performed inside a tunnel, in the bows of a docked boat, for naturist audiences, in people’s very own front rooms and even the odd theatre.
— From Mikron's website in 2024 [2]
The company is a registered charity and describes its activities as "Theatre anywhere for everyone by canal, river and road".
In 2017 the company offered 151 performances of its two commissioned plays, to a total audience of 14,668 made up of audience sizes from 14 to 250 but averaging 97, at 81% average occupancy and with 43 shows sold out, in 83 local authority areas. [7]
On 17 March 2020 the company announced that its 2020 tour, due to start on 18 April 2020, [8] was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. [9] They had started to rehearse Atalanta Forever but not A Dog's Tale. [10] Both productions were first performed in June 2021, out of doors, with a touring programme of outside venues booked for the rest of the season. [11]
In 2015 Mikron toured two shows: Raising Agents, written by Maeve Larkin and with music by O'Hooley & Tidow, which celebrated the centenary of the Women's Institute, [12] and One of Each written by Deborah McAndrew, about fish and chips and much else. [13]
Mikron's 2016 tour featured Canary Girls by Laurence Peacock, about 1914 munitions factory workers (who were known as Canary Girls because their skin turned yellow from working with toxic substances), [14] [15] and PURE by Richard Vergette, about the chocolate industry now and in the past. [16]
In 2017 Mikron performed In At The Deep End about the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) by Laurence Peacock (writer of Canary Girls) [17] and Best Foot Forward about the Youth Hostels Association, by Maeve Larkin (writer of Raising Agents). [18] Several performances took place in RNLI stations and YHA hostels respectively.
In 2018 Mikron performed Get Well Soon about the NHS in its 70th year, by Ged Cooper, and Revolting Women about suffrage to commemorate the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918 by Vashti Maclachlan (writer of Revolting Women). [19] [20] Maclachlan has previously acted in the company and directed their 2009 production Tales of the Thames, which was written by her husband Richard Povall. [21]
In 2019 the company presented Redcoats, a play about Butlin's holiday camps, by Nick Ahad and All Hands on Deck about the Wrens by Vashti MacLachlan. [22] [23] Their 9 August performance of Redcoats at the Toad Gin Distillery supported by British Naturism and Naturism Oxford is believed to be "the first professional theatre performance for a naturist audience, ever, in the UK. [24] [25] Their 31 August performance of All Hands on Deck took place in Liverpool's Western Approaches Museum, the setting for a scene in the play.
For 2020 the company commissioned A Dog's Tale by Poppy Holman about pedigree dogs and Crufts, [26] and Atalanta Forever by Amanda Whittington about women's football and the short-lived Huddersfield Atalanta Ladies' Football Club, [27] [28] [29] but the tour was cancelled. [9] Both shows were performed in 2021, at outdoor venues only, with appropriate precautions to protect audience and cast from COVID-19. [11] [30]
In 2022 the company revived the 2015 show, Raising Agents, [31] and commissioned a new play, Red Sky at Night, written by Lindsay Rodden, about weather forecasting. [32] [33]
The company's 2023 productions were Twitchers by Poppy Holman (writer of A Dog's Tale), about the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), [34] and A Force to be Reckoned With by Amanda Whittington (writer of Atalanta Forever), about women police officers. [35] The two playwrights wrote Mikron's 2020 productions. [36]
The shows for 2024 were Common Ground by Poppy Holman (writer of A Dog's Tale and Twitchers), about rights of access to land, including the Mass trespass of Kinder Scout, [37] [38] and Jennie Lee by Lindsay Rodden (writer of Red Sky at Night), about the politician Jennnie Lee. [39] [40]
For 2025, Mikron have commissioned Operation Beach Hut by Harvey Badger, featuring a "Best beach hut competition" in the fictional resort of Fiddling-On-Sea [41] and Hush Hush! by Lucie Raine, about World War II intelligence work at Bletchley Park. [42]
The company's narrowboat Tyseley was built in 1936 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company. She was built at Northwich by W.J.Yarwood & Sons Ltd. She is 71 ft 10 in (21.89 metres) long and 6 ft 11 in (2.11 metres) wide. She is registered with National Historic Ships UK. [3] [43]
Tyseley is a district of Birmingham near the Grand Union Canal.
Clive Barker is an English writer, filmmaker and visual artist. He came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series.
Sir Patrick Stewart is an English actor. With a career spanning over seven decades of stage and screen, he has received various accolades, including two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, four Emmy Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama in 2010.
Marsden is a large village in the Colne Valley, in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is in the South Pennines close to the Peak District which lies to the south. The village is 7 miles (11 km) west of Huddersfield at the confluence of the River Colne and Wessenden Brook. It was an important centre for the production of woollen cloth. In 2020, the village had an estimated population of 3,768.
Herman's Hermits are an English rock and pop group formed in 1963 in Manchester and fronted by singer Peter Noone. Known for their jaunty beat sound and Noone's often tongue-in-cheek vocal style, the Hermits charted with numerous transatlantic hits in the UK and in America, where they ranked as one of the most successful acts in the Beatles-led British Invasion. Between March and August 1965 in the United States, the group logged twenty-four consecutive weeks in the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100 with five singles, including the two number ones "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am".
Paul James O'Grady was an English comedian, broadcaster, drag queen, actor, and writer. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag persona Lily Savage, through which he gained wider popularity in the 1990s. O'Grady subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of various television and radio shows, including The Paul O'Grady Show.
Crufts is an international dog show held annually in the United Kingdom, held since 1891, and organised by The Kennel Club. It is the largest show of its kind in the world.
Michael Ashley Ball is an English singer, presenter and actor. In 1985, he made his West End debut as Marius Pontmercy in the original production of Les Misérables. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything", from the musical Aspects of Love, where he played Alex Dillingham. He played the role in the West End and on Broadway. His album Coming Home To You reached number one in the UK making it his 4th number one album to date. On 24 April 2020, Ball and Captain Tom Moore entered the UK Singles Chart at number one with a cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone", with combined chart sales of 82,000 making it the fastest-selling single of 2020.
Rona Munro is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television. Her film work includes Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird (1994), Oranges and Sunshine (2010) for Jim Loach and Aimée & Jaguar (1999), co-authored by German director Max Färberböck. Munro is the second cousin of Scottish author Angus MacVicar.
David Brett is an English actor, singer and arranger. He was one of the original members of The Flying Pickets, and arranged a number of the group's songs, including the number one hit Only You. His work as an actor, mainly on stage, has included Lark Rise to Candleford at the Finborough Theatre, London, but he has also participated in a number of TV productions and played Dedalus Diggle in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Harvest Rain Theatre Company was a not-for-profit theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. Beginning as an amateur company, it evolved into a professional musical theatre company presenting arena productions around Australia, before closing in 2022.
Amanda Whittington is an English dramatist who has written over 30 plays for theatre and radio. Her work is widely performed by companies across the UK, with recent productions at Hull Truck, Oldham Coliseum, New Vic Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse. Be My Baby is a popular GCSE and 'A' level choice in English Literature and Theatre Studies. She currently has two titles in Nick Hern Books' Top Ten Most Performed Plays. In 2017, she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at the University of Huddersfield.
Dead & Company is an American rock band that formed in 2015 with a lineup of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart (drums), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums), along with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti (keyboards). Jay Lane replaced Kreutzmann on drums in 2023.
Deborah McAndrew is a British playwright and actor, known for playing Angie Freeman in Coronation Street in the 1990s. She is also co-founder and Creative Director of the Stoke-on-Trent-based Claybody Theatre Company, and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at Staffordshire University.
Maeve Larkin is an English actor and playwright.
Laurence Peacock is an English playwright and dramaturg based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. His Canary Girls, about the canary girls of World War I, was one of Mikron Theatre Company's two touring productions in 2016, and his In At The Deep End, about the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, is one of their two productions in 2017.
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live show, stageplay and musical production arm of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company forms a part of Warner Bros., one of the major business segments of Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is led by Mark Kaufman.
Six is a British musical comedy in the style of a pop concert. Its music, book, and lyrics were written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a singing competition. In the show, the wives take turns telling their story to determine who suffered the most from their shared husband, but ultimately seek to reclaim their individual identities and rewrite their stories.
& Juliet is a 2019 coming-of-age jukebox musical featuring the music of Swedish pop songwriter Max Martin, with a book by David West Read. The story focuses on a "what if" scenario, where Juliet decided not to kill herself at the end of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Huddersfield Atalanta Ladies Football Club was a women's football club in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, from 1920 to about 1925. It took its name from Atalanta, the fierce huntress of Greek mythology.
Lindsay Rodden is a British playwright and dramaturg.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
