Mikron Theatre Company Will Launch 51st Year Of Touring With Poppy Hollman's New Play TWITCHERS

Mikron Theatre, one of the country's most versatile touring theatre companies, is delighted to announce that it will be launching its 51st season of touring with the premiere of Twitchers, Poppy Hollman's (A Dog's Tale, Mikron Theatre) new play with original live music.

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? 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!

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-Sawad and directed and arranged by Rebekah Hughes (Atalanta Forever, Mikron Theatre and Pride and Prejudice, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre).

Playwright Poppy Hollman said:

"It's a joy to write for Mikron and I'm delighted to be part of their 51st 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."

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.

The new play will be touring alongside the premiere of Amanda Whittington's new play A Force To Be Reckoned With which will open in May.

Twitchers will premiere at the Marsden Mechanics Hall on 7 April and then tour nationally by canal, river and road until 21st October.

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

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