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:DONCASTER (SOUTH YORKSHIRE)

Monday 9th October at 7.30pm

STRAWBERRY ISLAND BOAT CLUB

Milethorn Road, Doncaster, DN1 2SU

Tickets - No reserved seating or tickets required, a 'pay what you feel' collection will be taken after the show. Tel:01484 843701  | Web: www.sibc.club Pie & Pea supper available £5

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?

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.