There has been much controversy in the media about the decision by Arts Council England to cut arts funding to London based organisations by £24 million, and then redistributing it outside the capital – seen as part of the government’s levelling-up agenda. But this has proved very beneficial to the Midlands and Northern based waterways touring theatre groups.
Alarum Productions and Mikron Theatre Company respectively. Both have been awarded sizeable grants, in the case of Mikron for three years. As Mikron has responded, ‘This helps secure Mikron’s future for the next three years and will help us to continue our mission to tour theatre anywhere and for everyone in our sixth decade of touring.’
However, budgets for both groups will still be tight, and the need for commercial and individual sponsorship remains as important as ever. But at least the shows will go on!
For Mikron Theatre, 2023 will astonishingly be its 51st year of touring, since it was started by jobbing actors Mike Lucas and his wife Sarah in 1972. The formula that evolved in those early years still remains – a team of four actors / musicians – two female, and two male, playing an odd mix of instruments, but with at least a guitar or two, and an accordion. Since 1940, they have toured from the converted former 1936 working narrowboat Tyseley, then loaned to them, and which they bought in 1977.
In those 50 years, they have written an astonishing 66 original shows, employed 240 actors / musicians, and performed a whopping great 5,200 plus performances to more than 436,000 people. To many it’s the only live theatre they see outside of pantomime. And during last year’s COVID restrictions, theirs was the only live performance many people generally saw, as they could be put on outdoors and socially distanced, with online prebooking essential to control numbers. For their Braunston performance of Atlanta Forever – their show about the fight of women’s football – one of their patrons, Timothy West, came up form London especially to see it, and was photographed in goal with the team. The theme of that show has proved extraordinarily timely in view of last year’s European Cup victory by the Lionesses.
A toast to 50 years of Mikron
In the autumn of 2022, a very well attended ‘50th Birthday Bash’ was held at Mikron’s headquarters at Marsden Mechanics in West Yorkshire – once a warehouse and rescued from demolition by Mike Lucas and made into the theatre / community venue that it now is. For the celebration, Mike came over from France where he now lives with his new wife in retirement – his first wife Sarah had died some years before from cancer. For those like myself, who attended the party, it was a wonderful walk down memory lane, with highlights from many productions and many actors past and present in attendance.
For 2023, Mikron has two new plays, Twitchers, which is about ‘Birds, Birding and the RSPB’ and another, ‘exploring female police officers and their journey towards equality’. Both performances can be seen at Braunston’s Admiral Nelson in mid-June, as part of the Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally & Canal Festival – the performances sponsored by Braunston Marina.
Idle Women at Buls Bridge – April 1944
In Mikron’s early years, the shows had very much a canal theme – sourced from taped interviews Mike had made in his early days with surviving working boatmen and WWII ‘Idle Women’ volunteers. But eventually the story lines were exhausted. Wisely the tapes were given to Huddersfield University for research by future generations of canal historians.
Here’s hoping Mikron will keep on touring for at least another 50 years!
Alarum Productions are by contrast relative newcomers compared to Mikron Theatre. Comprising a duo of actors, Kate Saffin and Heather Wastie, they have only been working together since 2017. However, they had both been working individually in the performing arts for some years before. Heather in particular was Worcestershire Poet Laureate in 2015/6.
Kate and Heather met via a conversation on Twitter in Feb 2016, when they discovered they had both written/performed work about the wartime female trainees, the so-called ‘Idle Women.’ Kate writes, ‘It led to a first try-out joint-tour on this theme on the Staffs & Worcs and Shroppie. That was in 2017. We had our first support from the Arts Council. Quite by chance, it was 75 years since Eily Gayford and Mollie Traill started work on the Grand Union (1942), which was timely. So we explored their stories and in 2018 followed their route, as well as that of Daphne April who worked the Heather Bell throughout the war, carrying flour from Worcester to Tipton, then on empty to Cannock to load coal for carrying back to Worcester.
‘Then Heather and I started talking about the period after the war – the decline and then the renaissance of the canals. Heather’s family were very involved with the Staffs & Worcs from the early 60s till her father’s death in 2012, so she knew of the many women who had quietly toiled in the background without much, if any, recognition. Thus our production ‘I Dig Canals’ (a 1970s slogan) was born. Supported by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Grant, we interviewed 19 women, and heard wonderful stories of their escapades in the battles to save and restore the canals of the Black Country.’ Despite COVID restrictions, the production was a great success, appearing at the 2022 Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally and several other venues.”
Heather and Kate are now working on a new play about the 1923 Braunston Boatmen’s Strike, in what will be its centennial year – perhaps also timely with mass-strikes once more happening, some among some old industries now in decline. Cases in point are the postal service and the railways, both of which are being challenged by the new technology, as was canal carrying in 1923. In anticipation of this new production, Kate has been having conversations with people and groups in Braunston since 2019, where some family-memories remain raw.
Kate says, ‘It’s very exciting to get to this point where we are about to spring into action! It will be a community theatre project, which will be quite new for us. There will be lots of opportunities for local researchers, writers, actors, backstage and front of house helpers – with performances in the school, in the village and of course at the Braunston Rally.’
The production of the boatmen’s strike will be premiered at Braunston Marina on Thursday 22nd June, as part of the Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally. That performance will be sponsored by Braunston Marina.
As featured in the April 2023 issue of Canal Boat. Buy the issue here
