PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Mikron Theatre Company present
A new play by Amanda Whittington
Director:Gitika Buttoo
Composer and Co-lyricist:Greg Last
Musical Director and Arranger:Dan McGlade
Designer:Celia Perkins
Cast:Eddie Ahrens, Harvey Badger, Hannah Baker and Rachel Hammond.
To celebrate their 51styear of touring, Mikron Theatre is thrilled to announce that they will be performing playwrightAmanda Whittington'snew play ‘A Force to be Reckoned With'.More Heartbeat than Happy Valley, this arresting story, told with fabulous original music and a fast paced script, captures a century of change as it explores the story of the pioneering women of the British Police force.
It will be performed at:WARWICKSHIRE
THE WHARF INN
Wharf Road, Fenny Compton, Southam, CV47 2FE
Wednesday 9th August7pm
Tickets
No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01295 770332 | Web: www.thewharfinnfc.co.uk
CALCUTT BOATS
Tomlow Road, Stockton, Southam, CV47 8HX
Friday 11th August 7pm
Tickets
No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01484 843701 or Calcutt Boats 01926 813757
Web: www.calcuttboats.com
ST MARY'S ALLOTMENTS
Radford Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 1DP
Saturday 12th August 1.30pm
Tickets
No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01484 843701 | Web: www.stmarysallotments.org.uk
HATTON LOCKS CAFE
Canal Lane, Hatton, CV35 7JL
Thursday 17th August 7pm
Tickets
No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01926 409432
Web: /www.kenilworthfootpaths.org.uk/hatton-locks-cafe.html
The Bridge House, Lock 2, Lapworth Top Lock
Church Lane, Lapworth, Solihull, Solihull, B94 5NU
Friday 18th August 7pm
Tickets
No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01564 783672 | Web: www.stratfordcanalsociety.org.uk
With a handbag, whistle and a key to the Police Box, WPC Iris Armstrong is ready for whatever the mean streets of a 1950s market town throws at her. Fresh from police training school, she prepares for her first day on the beat. The reality is very different. Stuck at the station, she soon finds her main jobs are typing and making brews.
Iris joins forces with fellow ‘girl in blue' WPC Ruby Roberts. They're an unlikely partnership. A two-girl department, called to any case involving women and children, from troublesome teens to fraudulent fortune tellers.What starts as ‘women's work' soon becomes a specialist role. Iris finds she's earning her place in a historic force to be reckoned with. Along the way, she discovers the Edwardian volunteers who came before her, a lineage of Suffragettes-turned-moral enforcers and the secrets that the police box hides.
Playwright Amanda Whittington said about her new play:
"I'm delighted to be back at Mikron in their 51st year with A Force to be Reckoned With.
The play takes a light-hearted look at the lives of Women Police Constables in the 1950s,
celebrating their spirit, optimism and heroic efforts to break the glass ceiling without a
truncheon."
The production's cast of actor/musicians will featureEddie Ahrens(Monopoly Lifesized Selladoor/Gamepath Entertainment), Hannah Baker(The 39 Steps, OVO Theatre),Harvey Badger(Spring Awakening, Stratford Circus Arts Centre) andRachel Hammond(The True Adventures of Marian and Marian Hood, Barn Theatre and Swallows and Amazons, York Theatre Royal).
‘A Force to be Reckoned With' is directed by Mikron newcomerGitika Buttoo(Road, Oldham Coliseum),designed byCelia Perkins, with musical composition byGreg Last(The Borrowers and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Theatre by the Lake) and musically directed and composed byDan McGlade(Macbeth and Twelfth Night, Leeds Playhouse).
Amanda Whittington is one of the most widely performed playwrights in the country and was delighted to make her Mikron debut with Atalanta Forever in 2021. She's done the maths and discovered she's written 40 plays over the years, including ‘Be My Baby', ‘The Thrill of Love', ‘Kiss Me Quickstep' and most recently, the third in her Ladies trilogy, ‘Ladies Unleashed'. Amanda's published by Nick Hern Books and her work for Radio 4 includes seven series of the award-winning D for Dexter and The Archers.
‘A Force to be Reckoned With' will be touring nationally in the summer alongside Poppy Hollman's new play ‘Twitchers' which takes us on a flight through RSPB history, feathered with birdsong and laughter.
For tour dates and information on ‘A Force to be Reckoned With' visit www.mikron.org.uk
Ends
For press tickets and further information please contact
Mikron Theatre Company
01484 843701
admin@mikron.org.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, the companyislikeno other. For starters, over the last 51 years they have toured 68 productions on board avintage narrowboat and spent over 37,000 boating hours on the inland waterways. Secondly,they perform their shows in places that other theatre companies wouldn't dream of; a playabout growing-your-own on an allotment; a play about bees performed next to hives, a playabout fish and chips to audiences in a fish and chip restaurant, as well as plays abouthostelling performed in YHA Youth hostels and the RNLI, performed at several LifeboatStations around the UK. Over the last 51 years the company has performed 5300 times to over a staggering 440,000 people.
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Mikron Theatre Company presents...
Twitchers
Birds, Birders & the RSPB
A new play byPoppy Hollman
DirectorMarianne McNamara
ComposerAmal El-Sawad
DesignerCelia Perkins
Musical Director and ArrangerRebekah Hughes
Cast:Eddie Ahrens, Harvey Badger, Hannah Baker and Rachel Hammond
PERFORMANCE DETAILS:WARWICKSHIRE
Thursday 10th August at 7pm
THE FOLLY,The Folly at Napton, Napton on the Hill, nr Southam, CV47 8NZ
Tickets - No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01926 815185 | Web: www.facebook.com/thefollyatnapton
Wednesday 16th August at 7pm
THE TWO BOATS INN, Southam Road, Long Itchington, Southam, CV47 9QZ
Tickets - No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01926 812640
Saturday 19th August at 12.30pm
FOUNDRY WOOD, Princes Drive, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PH
Tickets - No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01484 843701 | Web: www.foundrywood.co.uk
Saturday 19th August at 7.30pm
ROWINGTON VILLAGE HALL, Rowington Village Hall, Rowington, CV35 7DB
Tickets - No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show.
Tel: 01484 843701
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 beflockingto Mikron's 51st season of touring. You'll be able toNest(le) down with Mikron in thisflightthroughbirdwatchinghistory,featheredwithbirdsongand laughter. You'll be giggling fromheronin and you won't ‘egretcoming!
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?
PlaywrightPoppy Hollmansaid:
"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."
Twitcherswill be touring alongside the premiere of Amanda Whittington's new playA Force To Be Reckoned Withcharting the pioneering women of the police
The production's cast of actor-musicians will featureEddie Ahrens(Monopoly Lifesized, Selladoor/Gamepath Entertainment),Hannah Baker(The 39 Steps, OVO Theatre),Harvey Badger(Spring Awakening, Stratford Circus Arts Centre), andRachel Hammond(The True Adventures of Marian and Marian Hood, Barn Theatre and Swallows and Amazons, York Theatre Royal)
Twitchersis directed by Mikron Theatre Company's Artistic DirectorMarianne McNamara(Atalanta Forever,Mikron Theatre), designed byCelia Perkins(Dick Wittington, Oldham Coliseum), with music composed byAmal El-Sawadanddirected and arranged byRebekah Hughes(Atalanta Forever, Mikron Theatre andPride and Prejudice,Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre).
For further information on Mikron andTwitchersplease visitwww.mikron.org.uk
Ends
For interviews, press tickets or further information
call Mikron on 01484 843701
or
emailadmin@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.