For immediate release

Mikron Theatre Company present
 

 Twitchers

Birds, Birders & the RSPB

A new play by Poppy Holloman

Director Marianne McNamara

Composer Amal El-Sawad

Designer Celia Perkins

Musical Director and Arranger Rebekah Hughes

Cast: Eddie Ahrens, Harvey Badger, Hannah Baker and Rachel Hammond

PERFORMANCE DETAILS: OPENING NIGHT

Friday 7th April at 7pm

MARSDEN MECHANICS, 16 Peel St, Marsden, Huddersfield HD7 6BW

Tickets are £15 and £13 for concessions family tickets £45

Mikron Theatre, one of the country’s most versatile and unusual touring theatre companies, is delighted to announce that it will be touring Twitchers, Poppy Hollman’s brand new play with original live music, celebrating all things birds, birders and the RSPB. Mikron tours the country by historic narrowboat and by road when venues aren’t quite close enough to a canal or river.
 
Audiences will be flocking to Mikron’s 51st season of touring. You’ll be able to Nest(le) down with Mikron in this flight through birdwatching history, feathered with birdsong and laughter. You’ll be giggling from heron in and you won’t ‘egret coming! 

Springwatch is coming to RSPB Shrikewing nature reserve. As we meet raucous rooks, booming bitterns and plenty of tits, we realise the birds of Shrikewing are its real stars. Can Jess take inspiration from the RSPB’s tenacious female founders and draw on its history of campaigning to save them? Can she find her own voice to raise a rallying cry for nature?

Playwright Poppy Hollman said:

 “It’s a joy to write for Mikron and I’m delighted to be part of their 51 st year of touring.” 

 “‘Twitchers’ is about the RSPB, Europe’s largest conservation charity, and their struggles to protect birds and wildlife since 1889. The play offers a fun swoop into the colourful world of birds and birdwatching. Our feathered friends are the real stars of the show; you’ll see them flirting, bickering and making their own indelible impression on the plot.”

Twitchers will be touring alongside the premiere of Amanda Whittington’s new play A Force To Be Reckoned With charting the pioneering women of the police

The production’s cast of actor-musicians will feature Eddie Ahrens (Monopoly Lifesized, Selladoor/Gamepath Entertainment), Hannah Baker (The 39 Steps, OVO Theatre), Harvey Badger (Spring Awakening, Stratford Circus Arts Centre), and Rachel Hammond (The True Adventures of Marian and Marian Hood, Barn Theatre and Swallows and Amazons, York Theatre Royal)  

Twitchers is directed by Mikron Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Marianne McNamara (Atalanta Forever, Mikron Theatre), designed by Celia Perkins (Dick Wittington, Oldham Coliseum), with music composed by Amal El-Sawadanddirected and arranged by Rebekah Hughes (Atalanta Forever, Mikron Theatre and Pride and Prejudice, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre).

For further information on Mikron and Twitchers please visit www.mikron.org.uk 

Ends

For interviews, press tickets or further information

call Mikron on 01484 843701 

or 

email admin@mikron.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, the company are like no other. For starters, over the last 51 years they have toured 68 productions on board a vintage narrowboat and spent over 35,000 boating hours on the inland waterways. Secondly, they perform their shows in places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of; a play about growing-your-own on an allotment; a play about bees performed next to hives, a play about fish and chips to audiences in a fish and chip restaurant, as well as plays about hostelling performed in YHA Youth hostels and the RNLI, performed at several Lifeboat Stations around the UK. Over the last 51 years the company has performed 5300 times to over a staggering 448,000 people.

Poppy Hollman – Playwright

Twitchers is Poppy’s second play for Mikron, following A Dog’s Tale, which toured in 2021 and was commissioned after she took part in the Mikron New Writers Scheme in 2018. Her other plays include Bells of Turvey (community play, 2017), Little Shining Eyes (No Loss Productions and Lifebox Productions, Bedfringe 2019) Moon Calf (2019) and Nobody talked (Glass Splinters, Pleasance Theatre London, 2020). As well as writing plays, Poppy works as a creative producer for the Living Archive in Milton Keynes.

Marianne McNamara – Director

Marianne joined Mikron as an actor in 2003 and has never left! 2022 is Marianne's 14th year as Artistic director for Mikron Theatre Company. She is delighted to be directing her 14th show for Mikron this year with 'Twitchers'. Alongside directing she books tours, develops plays, captains Tyseley and keeps Pete Toon our producer in line.