Eddie Ahrens, left, Rachel Hammond, Hannah Baker and Harvey Badger in Mikron Theatre Company’s A Force To Be Reckoned With. Picture: Anthony Robling
MIKRON Theatre Company are pursuing enquiries into the role of the pioneering women of Britain’s police force in Amanda Whittington’s new play A Force To Be Reckoned With.
After opening at the West Yorkshire company’s home of the Marsden Mechanics Hall on May 13, the premiere will be on tour nationally by canal, river and road until October 21, taking in Clements Hall, in York, on September 17 at 4pm.
Press performances will be at The Wetherby Whaler, Guiseley, tomorrownight and the Greater Manchester Police Museum & Archives, Manchester, on Saturday afternoon.
Billed as “more Heartbeat than Happy Valley”, A Force To Be Reckoned With captures a century of change in an arresting story directed by Gitka Buttoo with music by Greg Last and design by Celia Perkins.
In the cast are four actor-musician new to Mikron’s entertaining, enlightening and educational brand of theatre: Hannah Baker, Harvey Badger, Eddie Ahrens and Rachel Hammond, who played the punkish, free-spirited Peggy, one of the Amazons sisters, in Swallows And Amazons, Damian Cruden’s farewell production after 22 years as artistic director at York Theatre Royal in July-August 2019.
Equipped 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 different, however. Stuck at the station, she soon finds her main jobs are typing and making brews.
Whereupon Iris joins forces with fellow WPC Ruby Roberts: 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, one where Iris finds she is 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.
Amanda Whittington made her Mikron debut with her women’s football drama Atalanta Forever in 2021 in a career that has accrued more than 40 plays, such as Be My Baby, The Thrill Of Love, Kiss Me Quick and her Ladies trilogy, plus seven series of D For Dexter and episodes of The Archers for BBC Radio 4.
“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.”
Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron have toured 68 productions over the past 51 years, spending more than 37,000 boating hours on board the vintage narrowboat Tyseley.
They perform their shows in unexpected places: a play about growing your own veg on an allotment; one about bees, staged next to hives; another about fish and chips, in a fish and chip restaurant; hostelling, in YHA youth hostels; the RNLI, at several lifeboat stations. Now into a sixth decade, the company has stacked up 5,300 performances, playing to 440,000 people.
A Force To Be Reckoned With is touring through the summer months alongside Twitchers, Poppy Hollman’s new play about the history of the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), full of birdsong and laughter.
Dates include a 2pm open-air performance at Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, on Sunday, when no reserved seating or tickets are required, and instead a ‘pay what you feel’ collection will be taken after the show.
For tour dates and information on A Force To Be Reckoned With, visit http://mikron.org.uk
HULL Truck Theatre’s second half of their 50th anniversary season unleashes Ladies Unleashed, the third instalment of Amanda Whittington’s trilogy.
In the wake of Hull Truck hits Ladies Day – the one set at York Racecourse to coincide with Royal Ascot switching to Knavesmire in 2005 – and Ladies Down Under two years later, now the Nottingham playwright celebrates friendship, growing older and living for today.
Directed by artistic director Mark Babych, Ladies Unleashed reunites four friends, Hull fish factory workers Jan, Pearl, Linda and Shelley in 2022 on the peaceful, magical retreat of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in a story of secrets and mysteries, reunions and an imminent wedding, twists and surprises.
“Seventeen years! It’s absolutely frightening! I was checking when I started, thinking it must be ten years ago, but in fact it was 2005, and the world has changed so much since then,” says Amanda.
“I can’t believe it’s so long since we first went to Ladies Day with the fish factory foursome, and to Australia in Ladies Down Under a few years later. Creating these stories for Hull Truck was a magical time and the audience response was unforgettable.
“Since then, the two Ladies plays have been a firm favourite on the amateur circuit across the UK. Barely a month goes by without a production somewhere in the country, keeping the play alive since its original production. It’s such a gift as a writer to know what affection your characters are held in.”
Pearl (Fenella Norman), Jan (Allison Saxton) and Linda (Sara Beharrell) have not seen Shelley (Hull-born Gemma Oaten) for years, but when she suddenly turns up, Linda’s plans for a weekend of quiet contemplation (“not a hen party,” she says) take a different turn as tensions rise with the tide.
“I’ve always set the plays in the present day, so now Pearl is in her early 70s; Jan, mid-60s; Linda and Shelley around 40,” says Amanda.
Gemma Oaten in rehearsal for her role as Shelley in Ladies Unleashed at Hull Truck Theatre
“A whole generation has gone by, and I was quite reluctant to get back on the bike, after doing Ladies Day as a one-off, but then I did another one two years later, and so the characters are still very much alive in village halls and community centres.
“I thought of all the people who’ve been in Ladies Day or seen it, and there were discussions with Nick Hern Books, the publishers, who’ve been really instrumental in keeping the Ladies alive all these years.
“Then I started talking to artistic director Mark Babych about new ideas for the 50th anniversary, and a new Ladies play was floated. I was curious to think about where they were a generation later, but presenting it as a stand-alone play, looking at getting older and the benefits and challenges of doing that, when you don’t normally do that with characters from earlier plays.”
The third instalment was commissioned pre-pandemic. “There was a first draft, then the lockdowns, and when I came back to it, there’d been more changes,” says Amanda.
“I write about where we are, where we’ve been, so it’s partly a play about time. Writing dialogue for those characters again, I found it was like they’d never been away. They were just back in the room.
“It felt instantly right, and then it was about putting it in a dramatic framework that felt contemporary.”
After a day at the York Races in Ladies Day and a trip to Australia in Ladies Down Under, Amanda now sends Pearl Jan, Linda and Shelley to Lindisfarne and lets the island work its spell on them, like in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island.
“That was exactly the thought behind it, to get them to a place they can’t get off, a place that had so much history and texture, and, like Hull, had a great fishing industry, giving it that connection with the past.”
Ladies Unleashed cast members in the rehearsal room: from left, Martha Godber, Nell Baker, Fenella Norman, Sara Beharrell,, Allison Saxton and Gemma Oaten
Here was the cue for two new additions to the Whittington ranks of women, young fish workers Mabel (played by Martha Godber) and Daisy (Nell Baker), whose friendship from Lindisfarne’s past stirs anew as the island itself becomes restless, the sky darkens, the air chills, and the winds of change blow skeletons from closets. Whereupon past, present and future collide.
“I thought, what happens if the past comes alive and the young women they might have been awaken, working on the island a century earlier?” says Amanda. “This was the chance to bring magic realism into the play, and that’s been a lovely thing to open up.”
Women’s stories are at the heart of Amanda’s plays. “That’s very much what I’m about as a writer. It felt very natural for me to do that, and right from the beginning of my career that’s the voice I’ve always spoken in. Even now it’s still not common but it’s a characteristic of my work,” she says.
“John Godber’s plays, Arthur Miller’s plays, are never talked about as ‘male plays’, but women’s plays stand out because there just aren’t as many. Ladies Unleashed is about a female world, and as the women of Holy Island’s past come alive, it shows how women’s lives have changed so radically and yet how some things have still not changed.
“Thankfully, there are lots of untold stories from history about women that are being told now, but they’re not stories just for women; they’re stories for everyone.”
Ladies Unleashed plays out in the age of #MeToo and a rising focus on women’s rights. “It’s released something in the last few years that’s not about men versus women, or oppressing women, particularly as there are damaged men as well,” says Amanda. “That’s the spirit of my work, with women giving their perspective on a century of change, and in 2022 it’s really welcomed by audiences.”
What are the ladies unleashing, Amanda? “What holds them together is that core of friendship, and the key to that is their work as fish factory workers, but they all have something they need to be released from, barriers to break through, and part of that comes down to how that differs in the different generations and how that’s changed,” she says.
Hull Truck Theatre in Ladies Unleashed, September 29 to October 22. Last performance, 7.30pm. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Come on, Atalanta Forever: Elizabeth Robin, left, Thomas Cotran, Rachel Benson and James McLean, on commentary duty, in Amanda Whittington’s women’s football drama, at the Piece Hall, Halifax. Picture: Elizabeth Baker
Mikron Theatre Company in Atalanta Forever and A Dog’s Tale, on tour on boat, road and holding on to a lead until September 19
AFTER a Covid-cancelled year of no shows but resolute fund-raising to secure their future, Marsden’s Mikron Theatre Company are on their travels once more, giving plays the canal route treatment where possible aboard narrowboat Tyseley.
This should have been their 50th year of “theatre anywhere for everyone”, but those celebrations must wait until 2022. Nevertheless, the refreshing sight of company stalwart James McLean back on stage, in the company of fellow actor-musicians Rachel Benson, Elizabeth Cotran and luxuriant-haired Thomas Cotran, was cause enough to bring out the cheers at the Piece Hall press night for Amanda Whittington’s “fight for women’s football” drama, Atalanta Forever, in the Halifax open air.
Two nights later, and the same cast parked up at Scarcroft Allotments, in York, just as bushy tailed and bright eyed for the musical canine comedy caper A Dog’s Tale, Poppy Hollman’s debut professional commission after taking part in Mikron’s Writers’ Scheme in 2018.
Halifax, first. Noises off could be heard, nothing too distracting, not only from the bars around the Piece Hall but the peregrines that have taken over the Square Chapel gothic tower as their aerie. Then again, the players of Huddersfield’s Atalanta AFC women’s football team would have been used to crowds at fund-raising games for wounded soldiers, especially when playing the mighty Preston factory team Dick, Kerr’s Ladies FC, legendary gay star winger Lily Parr et al.
Thomas Cotran, left, Rachel Benson, Elizabeth Robin and James McLean in a scene from Atalanta Forever. PIcture: Elizabeth Baker
Parr was the first woman to be inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame, her pioneering story being told on stage in both Benjamin Peel’s Not A Game For Girls and Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish’s Offside, a play football, feminism and female empowerment.
Little is known of Atalanta AFC, however, who played for only a couple of seasons from 1920 before folding in 1924. “All that remains is a fixture list, a few newspaper reports and precious team photos,” writes Whittington in her programme notes.
“Who are those pioneering women and girls,” she asks. “The silence around them gave us space to imagine who played for Atalanta and why? It also allowed me to draw on my experience in the long shadow of the FA ban [on woman’s football that ran from 1921 to 1971].”
Aged 11, Whittington was the only girl who played in a 1980s’ Nottinghamshire boys’ village tournament and was promptly advised to stop because it “wasn’t appropriate”. She still feels the injustice, the sense of shame of wanting to do something she was “not meant to”.
Playwright Amanda Whittington: “Atalanta Forever is my revenge play,” she says, after being told it “wasn’t appropriate” for her to be playing in a boys’ football tournament at the age of 11
Atalanta Forever is her revenge play, she says. Amanda has written 30-plus plays, from Be My Baby to Ladies Day, Bollywood Jane to Mighty Atoms, and this time it’s personal. But not too personal, and not too, too serious either.
Although written with a campaigning zeal for the female empowerment of these ground-breaking players of the Twenties, Atalanta Forever is irreverent too about the beautiful game that is often anything but that, typified by the opening Rules Of The Game song. Ruby Of The Rovers and Girl’s Own adventures meet Match Of The Day and John Godber’s Rugby League physical comedy Up’n’Under.
Atalanta AFC blue-and-white scarves knitted by Mikron supporters decorate the fencing – and were tempting to purloin as the second half turned chillier – as we learn of the back stories of Annie (Benson) and Ethel (Robin), one a fireworks factory worker, the other a tram driver, when they join the new team.
Into the story come the multi-role playing Cotran (as team captain Constance, radical coach Ms Waller, Huddersfield Town legend Billy Smith and more besides) and McLean (as scoffing groundsman Arthur, a disapproving mother and John Motson send-up, Motty Johnson).
MIkron Theatre Company performing Atalanta Forever to a socially distanced full house at the PIece Hall, Halifax
In Mikron tradition, Whittington’s play is as educative as it is entertaining, balanced between righteous ire and humour, football match highlights and life off the pitch. She weaves in accounts of being stopped from writing left handed, the fate of a conscientious objector, massive post-war unemployment and strikes and a mother’s scorn for suffrage and socialism, but at the same she revels in an impromptu match with beret-wearing French tourists and even a Boris Johnson cameo.
How else could the play end but with a tribute to Lily Parr, a cheer for women’s football now thriving and a “nod to the brave girls who carried on”. Atalanta Forever is a resilient triumph, from Whittington’s stirring writing to Marianne McNamara’s pacy direction, Kieran Buckeridge’s playful songs to a chameleon cast of multiple talents. Back of the net!
Two evenings later, it was sunnier by far as dog owners took their pooches along the lane beside the Mikron van at Scarcroft Allotments. Again, they had brought only the simplest of set designs with a rail for hanging myriad costumes, instruments and props to the side, a raised stage and no lighting.
One of the joys of a long Mikron summer is the chance to see the same cast tackling two plays (although, alas, the 2021 tour being restricted to outdoor performances means no Clements Hall show this year in York, so you will have to travel farther afield).
Actor-musicians Elizabeth Robin, left, Thomas Cotran, James McLean and Rachel Benson in Mikron Theatre Company’s A Dog’s Tale
After football in Atalanta Forever, McLean, Benson, Robin and Cotran head into another competitive environment, the Cruft’s dog show, in A Dog’s Tale: cat-loving Poppy Hollman’s look at canines past and present, Cruft’s now and Cruft’s when started by cat-owning Charles Cruft, a suitably dogged late-19th century showman of Barnum instincts, puppy-keen to take on the stuffy Kennel Club.
The bond between people and their ‘best friends’ is ever present, ever enduring, even if shenanigans and skullduggery blight the competition in Hollman’s tale, one informed by her visit to Cruft’s in the name of an intrigued novice’s research.
History combines with a little mystery, a sense of mischief with an outsider’s initiation, in the world of “heroic hounds, pampered pooches and naughty nobblers”, as Benson’s Linda and her wayward rescue mutt, Gary, find themselves pursued by security through the halls of Crufts, accused of a “terrible crime”.
Robin and McLean have much fun as Margo and Carl, unbearably precious, ever-panicking, regular Cruft’s competitors; Cotran reels off all manner of accents in a multitude of roles; McLean twinkles as Cruft and has the best cameo in a spoof on Barbara Woodhouse.
Don’t be misled by the dog! A Dog’s Tale playwright Poppy Hollman is really a cat lover
Hollman challenges her cast with 20 characters between them, and in her first full-scale play, the characters and caricatures are her strongest suit, along with her sense of fun, both sharper than the dialogue and the slightly clunky storyline involving Gary’s crime and the naughty nobbler.
By comparison with McNamara’s Atalanta Forever, Rachel Gee’s direction has to work harder to maintain momentum and maximise the humour, but the performances are typically energetic, inventive, engaging and diverse, and the one scene with interloping cats is a gem of physical comedy and knowing contrast with the otherwise omnipresent dogs, topped off by a Dogs V. Cats rap battle.
Musical director Rebekah Hughes’s compositions for Hollman’s smart lyrics are a blast and Celia Perkins delivers fabulous costume designs that accentuate character superbly. The stiff dog’s leads with simply a collar where the head would be (rather than puppets) are particular favourite among the props.
Ultimately a little overstretched, the eager-to-please A Dog’s Tale nevertheless has much to enjoy, announcing a new talent in Hollman with the tools to take her comedy writing to the next level.
For the full tour itineraries and booking details, go to: mikron.org.uk. P.S. Dogs are welcome at most performances of A Dog’s Tale.
Catty comment: Thomas Cotran, Elizabeth Robin and Rachel Benson’s moggies revel in their show-stealing cameo in A Dog’s Tale
Do NOT be deceived by this picture of Polly Hollman and her canine compadre. Read on…
DON’T tell anyone, but A Dog’s Tale playwright Poppy Hollman prefers cats. Director Rachel Gee, by comparison, is a dog owner.
This evening, Mikron Theatre Company’s touring premiere pitches up at Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, for a sold-out 6pm performance.
“Well, I’ve tried to keep it hush-hush…but yes, I’m a cat lover and I do have two cats,” admits Poppy. “But we had lovely comments at last Saturday’s opening show at The Holbeck in Leeds, and the loveliest was, ‘Do you know, I’d never have guessed you didn’t have a dog’!”
In their 49th year of touring by canal, river and road, Marsden company Mikron are celebrating (wo)man’s best friend in a musical comedy caper, commissioned from Poppy to “look at canines past and present and the enduring bond between people and their dogs”.
“I genuinely did have to research about dogs, looking to work out why dogs means so much to people,” says Poppy, of her first professional commission. “Over the past year, in the pandemic lockdowns, we’ve really seen that with sales of dogs going through the roof.”
Poppy’s research took her to Crufts, the self-anointed world’s greatest dog show. “You realise the broad appreciation the British have for their dogs, as you see just how much they love them,” she says.
MIkron Theatre Company gathering for rehearsals at Marsden Mechanics
“We close the play with the song I wrote, Be More Dog, about going for a walk and seeing the world through their eyes: their loyalty, their love, the simplicity of everything.”
As one verse goes: “So be more dog/With loyalty and courage we should/Be more dog. Be as they would be to you/Look outside your own head. Take the lead and don’t be led/’Cause doggedness is good for you.”
“Through writing this play, I’ve now got a real understanding of what dogs mean to people,” says Poppy. “I love cats, but we do have a Dogs v. Cats rap battle in the show, where I’m a bit mean about cats because of their aloofness. Dogs will do anything to please their owners, whereas cats will just walk away with their tails in the air.”
What are the characteristics of her two cats? “They’re two ginger toms, Ziggy and Sparky; one is very fluffy, the other is very smooth; one is very greedy; the other is very fussy, so the greedy one eats the other one’s food,” says Poppy.
Exit cats stage left, tales left in the air. We need to talk instead about A Dog’s Tale, wherein Linda and her wayward rescue dog Gary are pursued by security through the halls and history of Crufts, accused of a terrible crime.
In highly competitive world of heroic hounds, pampered pedigrees and naughty nobblers, does Gary have what it takes to win the day?
Lead actors: Mikron Theatre Company cast members James McLean, Rachel Benson, Elizabeth Robin and Thomas Coran going for walkies with a parade of pooches. Picture: Liz Baker
“I spent two fascinating days at Crufts [at the Birmingham NEC in March] last year, eavesdropping on competitors, chatting to people and trying to work out which dog would win in each competition (success rate: zero),” says Poppy.
“People were very friendly and frank in sharing their suspicions about judging bias. ‘Well, you know, that dog will win because it’s Scottish and so is the judge!’ (It did win).
“My impression of Crufts was that while dog participation was on an exclusive basis, a huge variety of humankind was in evidence, on two legs or four wheels.”
This was testament perhaps to the huge importance of dogs to many different people in their roles as pets, medical assistance dogs, working dogs and more, says Poppy. “It’s also true to the founding principles of Charles Cruft, who charged only a penny so that everyone could enter their best friend.”
A cast of actor-musicians, Rachel Benson, Thomas Cotran, James McLean and Elizabeth Robin, will tell Hollman’s stories. “I’ve vwritten over 20 characters to be played by only four actors, but I know they’ll enjoy the challenge of bringing it to life!” says Poppy, who was picked to write the play after participating in Mikron’s 2018 Writers Scheme.
“It’s my first professional commission. It’s been a delight to work for Mikron, a company whose creativity and ethos I love.
Cat, a tonic? Yes, indeed, as the moggies steal a scene from the doggies in A Dog’s Tale. In the feline line-up: Thomas Cotran, Elizabeth Robin and Rachel Benson. Picture: Liz Baker
“From the application process, they selected ten writers to go to Marsden to find out about Mikron, to understand how they work, how they have such a unique playing style.
“They asked us each to write a scene and a song for a show about Crufts, and on the basis of what I wrote, they chose me for the commission.”
How did she feel? “Initially, it was scary, because I knew nothing about Crufts, but actually once I added to that scene, I really got into it, with anything in its extremes tending to comedy.”
Poppy’s research also took her to the Kennel Club archives, Europe’s largest dog library, near Green Park, London. “It was a very nice library to work in on and off for a few weeks, and we do a bit about the Kennel Club in the show because they were the rivals to Charles Cruft, though I hope they don’t think we’ve been mean or unkind!” she says.
From her research, A Dog’s Tale had to emerge in the Mikron style. “Their brief was pretty loose: ‘we like to have a laugh, we like people to learn something, and if we have a cry as well, that’s great’,” summarises Poppy. “Mine is more of a comedy as I found so much joy in the dog world.
“The key Mikron house style is to have no lights, no recorded music, and every show is outdoors this year, because of Covid, and that means that the story really has to motor on to keep the audience’s attention when they’re outdoors.”
Mikron Theatre Company’s poster for the 2021 tour of A Dog’s Tale
Poppy believes she fits the Mikron modus operandi like a glove. “Exploring British life in an irreverent way is manna to the way I write, but I had to re-write what I understand about writing drama,” she says.
In practical terms, she found it impossible to write the script without allocating the parts first, given the need to accommodate 20-plus characters. “I had to think, ‘who’s just come off?’, ‘who can come on now?’, ‘who can do a quick scene here?’.
“So, the main parts take fewer of the side characters, with the other two ending up doing endless changes! James McLean is one of those two: look out for his Sandra Woofhouse, based on the character we love from TV!”
A Dog’s Tale should have wagged last year, but lockdown put paid to Mikron’s travel plans. A year later, “we’ve left the script pretty much as it was,” says Poppy.
“I handed it in February last year when they were about to go into rehearsal, and in a way, I wouldn’t know what to have done to update it, though we’ve seen things like dog prices sky-rocketing over the past year.
“As a writer, I just know they’re going to be creative with what you write for them,” says Poppy Hollman of A Dog’s Tale cast members Elizabeth Robin, left, Thomas Cotran, James McLean and Rachel Benson. Picture: Liz Baker
“We did think about Covid, but actually it’s a light show, and rather than saying what a terrible year we’ve had, it’s time for escapism!”
Before becoming a playwright in rural Bedfordshire, Poppy had a very different career as head of touring exhibitions at the V&A Museum, London, from 2006 to 2013.
“The change wasn’t accidental. I had children and we left London for more space and a more rural life. The practicalities of commuting to London to do a pretty serious and demanding job became more difficult. “I just needed to get out of London. I’d loved the job, but it was necessary to move on.”
Poppy set her heart on creating plays for community audiences. “I decided, with zero experience, that I would write a play about my home village of Turvey – Bells Of Turvey – focusing on a real family from the mid-19th century,” she recalls of her 2017 debut.
“We had a community cast of 40 and a big stage down the middle of Turvey Village Hall, inspired by things like the Mystery Plays and Lark Rise To Candleford.”
Not content with writing a show on such a scale, she also directed the community production. “But I’m not really a director at heart,” she says. “It’s healthy, I think, to have a director to bring something new and magical to the play, and in turn you should stick to your own strengths.”
Out on a lead: Rachel Benson in A Dog’s Tale. Picture: Liz Baker
She loves productions where you can feel the connection between the company and their audiences. “That happens even more with shows on Mikron’s scale. I just love the immediacy of the performances and the incredible talents of the actors, how they perform and play music too,” says Poppy. “As a writer, I just know they’re going to be creative with what you write for them.”
Looking ahead, “I’d love to write another play for Mikron, and I’m now working on a piece about the unrest of the late-15th and 16th century Enclosures, and our relationship with that world now.
“I’m also thinking of writing a play about bird-watching, which would definitely be a comedy. It’s been hard to write over the past year, though I’ve worked on some radio pieces off my own back, but it’s a situation that most writers face after doing their first commission.”
A Dog’s Tale is up and running, as cat-loving playwright Poppy Hollman and dog-owning Mikron director Rachel Gee’s shared vision comes to life.
Have they fought like cats and dogs? “We didn’t really discuss Rachel’s dog,” says Poppy. “We certainly didn’t bring up our differing preferences!”
Aboard narrowboat Tyseley and on land, Mikron Theatre Company are touring Poppy Hollman’s A Dog’s Tale nationally in tandem with Amanda Whittington’s new women’s football play, Atalanta Forever, until September 19. For full tour details and tickets, go to: mikronorg.uk
Artistic director Marianne McNamara and producer Pete Toon at Mikron Theatre Company’s last performance in 2019. Picture: Mark Kelly
MIKRON Theatre Company have shot past their fundraising target to secure next year’s 50th anniversary tour in less than three weeks.
After the Covid curse de-railed their entire 2020 season, the West Yorkshire travelling troupe needed to raise £48,337.49 to continue taking shows not only on the road but on canals and rivers too.
The brisk financial fillip supplied by supporters and the public at large, both home and abroad, means the Marsden company now can plan their 2021 travels aboard their 1936 narrowboat Tyseley.
“We cannot thank people enough,” says buoyant artistic director Marianne McNamara. “We are absolutely humbled by the support we have received. It is testament to not only how valued the company is, but also to the work we have done for the past 50 years.
“We’ve had letters and emails from all over the world: Texas, Catalonia and the Netherlands and, of course, every corner of the country from Cornwall to Cromarty, saying how much Mikron means to them and that they couldn’t see us miss out on our 50th year of touring.”
What happens next? “Every penny raised over the minimum amount we needed for the appeal will, of course, be used wisely and carefully,” says Marianne. “We have Tyseley, our narrowboat, to keep ship shape, and we will be able to continue our aims of developing new writers, directors and creatives for the future of Mikron and the industry as a whole.”
Based at the Mechanics Hall in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron Theatre Company tour shows to “places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, be it a play about growing-your-own staged at allotments; a play abuzz with bees performed next to hives; or one about when the chips are down, served up in a fish and chip restaurant.
Game on! Amanda Whittington’s football play, Atalanta Forever, WILL be staged by Mikron Theatre Company next year
Or a play about hostelling that spent nights at YHA youth hostels and one telling the story of the RNLI, launched at several lifeboat stations around the UK coastline.
The successful appeal ensures 2020’s Covid-cancelled shows can go ahead in 2021: Amanda Whittington’s new work on women’s football in the 1920s, Atalanta Forever, and the premiere of Polly Hollman’s canine comedy caper A Dog’s Tale.
In 48 years until this year’s enforced hibernation, Mikron have performed 64 original shows; composed and written 384 songs; issued 236 actor-musician contracts; spent 30,000 boating hours on the inland waterways; covered 530,000 road miles; performed 5,060 times and played to 428,000 people.
For further information on Mikron Theatre Company and the opportunity to donate, visit mikron.org.uk/appeal.
Atalanta Forever…but not for 2020 after Covid-19 showed the red card to Amanda Whittington’s new football play, forcing Mikron Theatre Company to call off this summer’s tour
MIKRON Theatre Company are launching a near-£50,000 fundraising appeal to secure their 50th anniversary year, but under the dark clouds of Coronavirus their future is at risk.
The West Yorkshire company had to cancel this summer’s tours of Amanda Whittington’s Atalanta Forever and Poppy Hollman’s A Dog’s Tale, once the Covid-19 lockdown strictures prevented them from touring by canal, river and road as is their custom.
The stultifying impact of the pandemic has dealt Mikron a “potentially catastrophic blow” and consequently they need help to “ensure that they get back on their feet, back on the road and back on the water”.
No touring from April to October has meant no income from 130 shows, no merchandise, no programmes, no raffle, in the budget, whereupon Mikron are facing a shortfall of £48,337.49.
Atalanta Forever playwright Amanda Whittington
Artistic director Marianne McNamara says: “The entire management team is doing as much as we can to reduce costs month by month, but this simply is not enough. On current budgets, the company will run out of money before our 50th year of touring in 2021.
“With this in mind, we have no choice but to launch an appeal to raise £48,337.49 by the end of December 2020 to ensure that Mikron has a future within the theatre industry.”
Should the appeal be successful, next summer Mikron will tour Atalanta Forever, Whittington’s story of women’s football in the 1920s, and Hollman’s canine comedy caper A Dog’s Tale. As ever, York would play host to shows at Scarcroft Allotments and Clements Hall.
After making the decision not to tour in light of the pandemic, Mikron took Arts Council England’s advice and have been helping the community in their home village of Marsden, near Huddersfield.
Coronavirus-cancelled canine comedy capers: MIkron Theatre Company’s poster for A Dog’s Tale
To do so, they have repurposed their office and van to assist with the village Covid-19 mutual aid group Marsden Help and have delivered hundreds of food parcels and prescriptions to self-isolating and vulnerable families.
“We’re so incredibly sad not to be touring,” says Marianne. “In the early stages of the Coronavirus outbreak we looked at every possible combination, but none of them were practical.
“What I would not give to see Mikron performing at a canalside venue to a large crowd with the sun setting behind us. We see the same faces in different places year on year and we really miss them but the safety of the cast and crew, venues and, of course, our loyal audiences, had to come first.”
Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron tour on board a vintage narrowboat, Tyseley, putting on shows in “places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”.
It could be a play about growing-your-own, staged at allotments; a play abuzz with bees, performed next to hives, or a play where the chips are down, served up in a fish and chip restaurant. Add to that list a play celebrating hostelling, booked into YHA Youth hostels and the story of the RNLI, launched from several lifeboat stations on the coast.
Mikron Theatre Company’s summer mode of transport: Tyseley, a vintage narrowboat. Picture: Jon Gascoyne
Since Mikron formed in 1972, they have:
Written 64 original shows;
Composed 384 songs;
Issued 236 actor-musician contracts;
Spent 30,000 boating hours on the inland waterways;
Covered 530,000 road miles;
Performed 5,060 times;
Played to 428,000 people.
For further information and to donate to the appeal to keep Yorkshire’s narrowboat theatre company afloat, visit mikron.org.uk/appeal. Donations also can be sent to Mikron Theatre, Marsden Huddersfield, HD7 6BW.
Atalanta Forever…but not now for 2020 after Mikron Theatre Company called off the tour of Amanda Whittington’s new play
MIKRON Theatre Company 2020’s tour of Amanda Whittington’s new women’s
football play, Atalanta Forever, is off. The referee showing the red card is,
inevitably, Coronavirus Pandemic.
The tour would have opened at the National Football Museum, Manchester,
on April 18, and waiting in the wings was a June 2 visit to the Marsden
travelling players’ regular York idyll of the Scarcroft Allotments, kick-off at
6pm.
Also falling foul of COVID-19’s Governmental advice to avoid unnecessary
social contact is Mikron’s second show of the summer, Poppy Hollman’s new play A
Dog’s Tale, a celebration of canines past and present that explores the
enduring love between people and their dogs.
This exploration of “the extraordinary world of heroic hounds,
pampered pedigrees and naughty nobblers through the halls and history of Crufts”
was bound for Clements Hall, York, in the autumn, with a cast of Mikron stalwart
James McLean, company newcomer Thomas Cotran and Rachel Benson and
Elizabeth Robin from last year’s brace of shows, All Hands On Deck and Redcoats.
In a statement from artistic director Marianne McNamara, producer
Pete Toon, general manager Rachel Root, production manager Jo English and the board
of trustees, Mikron say: “It is with an extremely heavy hearts that we have to
tell you that we are cancelling our 2020 tour.
“We have worked on every possible scenario and this
is the only way that we will survive into our 50th year of touring in 2021.
“Our board has a duty of care for our team, venues
and Mikron supporters. We want you all to know that we are thinking of you, and
indeed everyone who is part of the Mikron family, in these very difficult
times.”
Mikron Theatre Company’s summer mode of transport: Tyseley, a vintage narrowboat. Picture: Jon Gascoyne
The statement continues: “If you’ve already booked
tickets for our 2020 season – thank you! – we will honour any ticket refunds:
just call or email if you would like us to action this.
“Like many theatre lovers across the world, if you
feel that you wish to donate your ticket price to help us come back better than
ever in 2021, we’d be so very grateful.
“If you haven’t booked, but you were planning on
seeing us in 2020, you can support Mikron now in the following ways:
Mikron praise Arts Council England for being “amazing”
“They are doing everything they can to assist the arts, museums and libraries.
We genuinely would not be here without them today,” they say.
“We have been able to cushion the financial blow
for our creative team as much as possible, and we’re planning for next year in
the hope that what we collectively do in the coming months gets us there.
Coronavirus-cancelled canine comedy capers: MIkron Theatre Company’s poster for A Dog’s Tale
“If there is anything else we can do for you,
please do keep in touch. We may not be out on the road and waterways this year
but we’re still very much here for you on email, and at the end of the phone.”
From the writer of Ladies Day, Ladies Day Down Under and Mighty Atoms
for Hull Truck Theatre and Bollywood Jane for the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Atalanta Forever tells the story of pioneering women footballers in 1920.
In post-war Britain, women’s football is big news. Across the country,
all-girl teams are pulling huge crowds in fund-raising games for wounded
soldiers.
Huddersfield amateurs Ethel and Annie take a shot at the big time.
Teammates at Atalanta AFC, they are soon tackling new football skills,
mastering the offside rule and kicking back at the doubters.
This summer’s audiences would have been invited to “come and cheer for
Atalanta as our plucky underdogs learn how to play the game, take on the
legendary teams of the era and find the toughest opponent of all is the
Football Association”.
Whittington’s play is based on the true story of one of three women’s
football teams in Huddersfield in post-war Britain. As told through the lives
of two young women, Atalanta Ladies Football Club was formed in 1920 to
“provide games for the women of Huddersfield, to foster a sporting spirit, and
a love of honour among its members”.
During the Great War, several women’s football teams had sprung up
around the country, usually based in factories or munitions works, and proved a
great success in raising money for hospitals, war widows and so on.
Atalanta Forever playwright Amanda Whittington
The popularity of the women’s game may be measured by the estimated
25,000 crowd that packed Hillsborough, Sheffield, for the Huddersfield
team’s next game with the Dick, Kerr Ladies FC of Preston on May
4, when they lost 4-0 to their much more experienced opponents.
In the wider football world, the growing popularity of women’s football
was now causing concern. The FA even saw it as taking support away from the
men’s game and on December 5, 1921, they banned women’s teams from using FA
affiliated grounds.
Before folding in 1924, the pioneering Huddersfield Atalanta
Ladies FC had raised more than £2,000 for various charities.
Writer and co-lyricist Whittington says of her new play: “I
was an 11-year-old footballer in the 1980s, the only girl who played in the
boys’ village tournament, and I vividly remember being ‘advised’ to stop
because it wasn’t appropriate.
“I still
feel the injustice and the sense of shame for wanting to do something I wasn’t
meant to.
“It brings
joy to my heart to see football’s now the biggest team sport for girls in
Britain. I wanted to write about the battle the women’s game has fought
to survive and prosper – and perhaps to tell the 11-year-old me she was
right?”
A newly prescient poster for Mikron Theatre Company’s 2018 tour of Get Well Soon. How we need all those heroes in our NHS in the months ahead, God bless you all
Atalanta
Forever was being directed by Mikron artistic director Marianne McNamara, joined
in the production team by composer and co-lyricist Kieran Buckeridge, musical
director Rebekah Hughes and designer Celia Perkins.
Explaining why Mikron chose to tackle the subject of the fight
for women’s football, McNamara says: “Women’s football is making a comeback and
not before time. We are thrilled to pay homage to the trailblazing Huddersfield
women that paved the way against all odds.
“Just like
the great game itself, this will be an action-packed play of two halves, full
of live music, fun and laughter with no plans for extra time!”
Mikron’s 49th year of touring would have run from April 18 to October,
with the West Yorkshire company travelling hither and thither by road in the
spring and autumn, and by river and canal on the vintage narrowboat Tyseley, until October 24.
Let us look
forward to whenever Mikron will be putting on their shows once more in “places
that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, whether a play about
growing-your-own veg, presented in allotments; one about bees performed
next to hives; another about chips in a fish and chips restaurant, as well as
plays about hostelling in YHA youth hostels and
the RNLI at several lifeboat stations around the UK.
In the meantime, in the spirit of Mikron’s 2018 show by York
writer Ged Cooper, please world, Get Well Soon.
Earning their stripes: Mikron Theatre Company’s poster for this summer’s tour of Amanda Whittington’s Atalanta Forever
MIKRON Theatre Company kick off their
2020 tour of Amanda Whittington’s new women’s football play, Atalanta Forever,
on April 18.
Waiting in the wings is the Marsden company’s
York performance at Scarcroft Allotments on June 2 at 6pm.
From the writer of Ladies Day, Ladies
Day Down Under and Mighty Atoms for Hull Truck Theatre and Bollywood Jane for
the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Atalanta Forever tells the story of pioneering
women footballers in 1920.
In post-war Britain, women’s football
is big news. Across the country, all-girl teams are pulling huge crowds in
fund-raising games for wounded soldiers.
Huddersfield amateurs Ethel and Annie
take a shot at the big time. Teammates at Atalanta AFC, they are soon
tackling new football skills, mastering the offside rule and kicking back at
the doubters.
This summer’s audiences are invited
to “come and cheer for Atalanta as our plucky underdogs learn how to play the
game, take on the legendary teams of the era and find the toughest opponent of
all is the Football Association”.
Whittington’s play is based on the true story of
one of three women’s football teams in Huddersfield in post-war Britain. As told
through the lives of two young women, Atalanta Ladies Football Club was formed
in 1920 to “provide games for the women of Huddersfield, to foster a sporting
spirit, and a love of honour among its members”.
During the Great War, several women’s football
teams had sprung up around the country, usually based in factories or munitions
works, and proved a great success in raising money for hospitals, war widows
and so on.
The popularity of the women’s game may be measured
by the estimated 25,000 crowd that packed Hillsborough, Sheffield, for the
Huddersfield team’s next game with the Dick, Kerr Ladies FC of
Preston on May 4, when they lost 4-0 to their much more experienced
opponents.
In the wider football world, the growing popularity
of women’s football was now causing concern. The FA even saw it as taking
support away from the men’s game and on December 5, 1921, they banned women’s
teams from using FA affiliated grounds.
Before folding in 1924, the pioneering Huddersfield
Atalanta Ladies FC had raised more than £2,000 for various charities.
“I still feel the injustice and the sense of shame for wanting to do something I wasn’t meant to,” says playwright Amanda Whittington, recalling her own experiences of playing football
Writer and co-lyricist Whittington says
of her new play: “I was an 11-year-old footballer in the 1980s, the only girl
who played in the boys’ village tournament, and I vividly remember being
‘advised’ to stop because it wasn’t appropriate.
“I still feel the injustice and the
sense of shame for wanting to do something I wasn’t meant to.
“It brings joy to my heart to see
football’s now the biggest team sport for girls in Britain. I wanted to
write about the battle the women’s game has fought to survive and prosper – and
perhaps to tell the 11-year-old me she was right?”
Atalanta Forever is directed by Mikron
artistic director Marianne McNamara, who is joined in the production team by composer
and co-lyricist Kieran Buckeridge, musical director Rebekah Hughes and designer
Celia Perkins. Casting will be announced in the coming months.
Explaining why Mikron chose to tackle
the subject of the fight for women’s football, McNamara says: “Women’s football
is making a comeback and not before time. We are thrilled to pay homage to the
trailblazing Huddersfield women that paved the way against all odds.
“Just like the great game itself,
this will be an action-packed play of two halves, full of live music, fun and
laughter with no plans for extra time!”
Mikron’s 49th year of
touring will open at the National Football Museum, Manchester, on April 18 and
then travel nationally by road and canal on a vintage narrowboat until October
24.
Atalanta Forever will be touring
alongside Poppy Hollman’s new play, A Dog’s Tale, a celebration of canines
past and present that explores the enduring love between people and their dogs.
As ever, Mikron will be putting on
their shows in “places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, whether
a play about growing-your-own veg, presented in allotments; one about bees performed next to
hives; another about chips in a fish and chips restaurant, as well as plays
about hostelling in YHA youth hostels and
the RNLI at several lifeboat stations around the UK.
For more information and tour dates and locations for Atalanta Forever, go to mikron.org.uk/shows/atalanta-forever.
