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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]

History

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]

Activities

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][5] It claims to be "the UK’s most prolific theatre company" and in 2018 performed in 130 venues.[2]

We have performed at allotments, care homes, community centres, dry docks, festivals, lifeboat stations, pubs, rallies, restaurants, village halls and Youth Hostels. We’ve even performed inside a tunnel, in the bows of a docked boat, in people’s very own front rooms and even the odd theatre!

— From Mikron's website in 2018[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.[6]

On 17 March 2020 the company announced that its 2020 tour, due to start on 18 April 2020,[7] was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.[8] They had started to rehearse Atalanta Forever but not A Dog's Tale.[9] 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.[10]

Productions

In 2015 it toured two shows: Raising Agents, written by Maeve Larkin and with music by O'Hooley & Tidow, which celebrated the centenary of the Women's Institutes,[11] and One of Each written by Deborah McAndrew, about fish and chips and much else.[12]

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),[13][14] and PURE by Richard Vergette, about the chocolate industry now and in the past.[15]

In 2017 Mikron performed In At The Deep End about the RNLI by Laurence Peacock[16] and Best Foot Forward about the Youth Hostels Association, by Maeve Larkin.[17] 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.[18][19] Maclachlan has previously acted in the company and directed their 2009 production Tales of the Thames, which was written by her husband Richard Povall.[20]

In 2019 the company presented Redcoats, a play about Butlins holiday camps by Nick Ahad and All Hands on Deck about the Wrens by Vashti MacLachlan.[21][22] Their 9 August performance 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.[23][24] 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,[25] and Atalanta Forever by Amanda Whittington about women's football and the short-lived Huddersfield Atalanta Ladies' Football Club,[26][27][28] but the tour was cancelled.[8] Both shows were performed in 2021.[10][29]

In 2022 the company revived the 2015 show, Raising Agents,[30] and commissioned a new play, Red Sky at Night, written by Lindsay Rodden, about weather forecasting.[31][32]

Narrowboat Tyseley

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.[3][33]

Tyseley is a district of Birmingham near the Grand Union Canal.

References

Further reading

• Lucas, Mike (2001). I'd Go Back Tomorrow: Thirty Years of the Mikron Theatre Company. J. M. Pearson. ISBN 978-0907864899.
• Hickling, Alfred (1 September 2015). "Plays on the waterways: how Mikron turned a narrowboat into a theatre". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2015.

External links

• Official website
• "Mikron Theatre Co. plays and actors 1972-2016" (PDF). Mikron Theatre Company.
• "Mikron Theatre Company, registered charity no. 265169". Charity Commission for England and Wales.

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