Katherine MacAlister on Mikron’s plan to play 150 summer venues

It was deemed an impossible project and yet if you venture up Oxfordshire’s canals over the next few weeks, it’s likely you’ll come across a curious band of players.

Yes Mikron theatre company is back and this year is performing its most ambitious programme yet. One that its creators thought would never get off the ground. Founded in 1972, Mikron will perform at 150 venues by narrowboat this summer, to every conceivable type of venue, reaching audiences other companies cannot.

As if that wasn’t unique enough, Mikron also specialises in telling stories of uniquely British things – two per season, which are alternated. 2015’s offerings include One of Each – a savoury tale of fish and chips which is packing out pubs, clubs and village halls around the country, and Raising Agents which is stealing the show.

Raising Agents marks the centenary of the founding of the WI in Britain, and when Marianna McNamara, the artistic director, came up with the idea she passed it to Mikron writer Maive Larkin.

Maive did lots of head scratching and research and concluded the WI was so vast and so contrasting, with such a broad social remit, that it was impossible to encapsulate into one play, declaring it an impossible project.

“Maive’s conclusion then became the basis for the play,” Marianna explains.

Raising Agents is therefore about a PR’s attempt to update the WI and build bridges between its traditional older members and younger more modern thinking compatriots.

“Essentially it’s about friendship and about how very different women can be,” Marianna adds.

But what Marianna has learnt along the way, more than anything else, is how powerful the WI still is and how fundamental its members are as a collective. “The WI started off in Canada when a woman who had lost a baby went to the Farmers’ Union and said they needed to start educating women about health and children, and that it was more important than animal husbandry. The movement then spread to Wales and beyond,” Marianne recounts.

Having whittled down the cast for the two Mikron plays from 450 hopefuls to four, the new recruits have been taught how to steer a narrowboat, work the locks and then put up the set at their given location before giving the performance of a lifetime.

“We chose the cast not only for their acting skills but also for their ability to work as a team, because it’s not always easy living on a narrowboat, so they all need to get on,” Marianne says. Mikron is overwhelmed by the audience’s response, WI members in particular coming out en masse, ticket sales soaring, audiences increasing.

“People come from all walks of life, people who don’t normally go to the theatre, and others who just happen to be in the pub when we arrive,” Marianne laughs.

And with The Plough Inn, Abingdon, The Players’ Theatre, Thame, The Queen’s Head, Eynsham, Wharf House, Banbury, Boat Inn, Thrupp, The Rock of Gibraltar, Enslow, The Great Western Arms, Banbury and The Pig Place, Banbury, still to come, you could be next. Some events are ticketed while at others a bucket is passed around at the end for donations.

For information, dates, venue and box office information go to the website mikron.org.uk