Mikron Theatre Company Present REVOLTING WOMEN

This May, Mikron Theatre Company will mark the 100th anniversary of women in the UK being allowed to vote, with the premiere of Revolting Women -Vashti Maclachlan's new play about the suffragette story as seen through the eyes of the political activist and campaigner for women's rights Sylvia Pankhurst.

The new play will start its national tour at the Lawrence Batley Theatre on 26 May and then around the UK by road and river until the 13 October 2018.

Revolting Women tells the Suffragette story through the eyes of Sylvia Pankhurst, who fought for the vote alongside working women in the East End. Sylvia meets Lettie and together they push to Parliament, to bend the ear of the Cabinet.

Full of political satire, song and more suffrage societies than you can shake a stick at, Revolting Women unravels a contentious and momentous movement in history!

Revolting Women will be directed by Jonny Kelly (A Princess Undone, Park Theatre and Bismillah!, VAULT Festival 2018), designed by Celia Perkins (Dick Wittington, Oldham Coliseum), with music composed by Kieran Buckeridge (War Game, Bristol Old Vic) and directed by Rebekah Hughes (Cyrano, Northern Broadsides). The cast will feature Christopher Arkeston, James McLean, Rosamund Hine and Daisy Ann Fletcher.

Playwright Vashti Maclachlan (Co-wrote Striking the Balance, Mikron Theatre and The Sod, BBC Radio 4) said:

"Revolting Women came out of my interest in Sylvia Pankhurst's story but I discovered along the way a campaign full of militant deeds and words, yes, but also one full of friendship, wit and humour, ripe for representation on a Mikron stage."

Director Jonny Kelly added:

"Revolting Women is my first director credit for Mikron. I'm so looking forward to getting cracking with the lovely team and seeing the show change in every unique Mikron venue."

Born in Manchester, Sylvia Pankhurst was the second daughter of Richard Pankhurst, a Manchester lawyer and social reformer, and his wife, Emmeline, who was - with her eldest daughter, Christabel, and Sylvia - to become a major figure in the women's suffrage movement. In the early 1900s Sylvia combined work for the Women's Social and Political Union, founded in 1903 by Emmeline and Christabel, with training as an artist at the Royal College of Art in Kensington.

Sylvia was known for her suffrage militancy - she was imprisoned for the first of many times in 1906. In 1913, she founded the East London Federation of Suffragettes, and launched a newspaper, the Dreadnought. She later wrote The Suffragette Movement (1931), one of the first and most lucid accounts of the struggle for the vote.

During the First World War Sylvia emerged as a radical socialist and pacifist. After 1918 she visited Russia and became associated with the emergent Communist Party of Great Britain, writing fiercely polemical articles in the Dreadnought.

Sylvia was an early and articulate opponent of Italian fascism and was particularly incensed by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-6. In 1935 she started the New Times and Ethiopia Times which became the principal source written in English on Ethiopian affairs. She remained committed to the Ethiopian cause for the rest of her life and in 1956 settled permanently in Addis Ababa, where she died in 1960.

Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron Theatre Company the company are like no other. For starters, they tour for most of the year on board a vintage narrowboat, secondly, they put on their shows in places that other theatre companies wouldn't dream of; a play about growing-your-own shown in allotments, a play about bees performed next to hives, a play about chips to audiences 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. This year the company will be embarking on their 47th of touring.

Revolting Women, will be touring nationally from May 2018 alongside Ged Cooper's new play celebrating 70 years of the NHS - Get Well Soon.

For further information on both shows please visit http://mikron.org.uk

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