Mikron Theatre to Premiere Maeve Larkin's New Play BEST FOOT FORWARD- A Hike Through the History of Hostelling

Following their hugely successful touring productions of Pure and Canary Girls, the award winning Mikron Theatre are set to premiere Maeve Larkin's new play about the history of Youth Hostelling - Best Foot Forward.

The new play will tour from the March to October 2017 and will be performed in several Youth Hostels throughout England.

Something's afoot at Pearling Manor and it isn't just the walkers. The beautiful hostel, rich in YHA history, is lovely but falling apart. External forces are out to grab and turn it into a golf club. Cue Connie, first ever warden, with a heart as big as her rucksack. She takes us on a journey through YHA's past in the hope of securing its future.

Best Foot Forward will be directed by Mikron Theatre's Artistic Director Marianne McNamara, designed by Kate Morton (One of Each, Mikron Theatre), with music composed by Kieran Buckeridge (Up down, Salisbury Playhouse and War game, Bristol Old Vic) and directed by Rebekah Hughes (The Winter's Tale, Northern Broadsides). The cast will be announced in the coming months.

Playwright Maeve Larkin said: "I'm chuffed to be back with Mikron, with a subject close to my heart. Writing for Mikron about YHA felt like a marriage of minds. And as both have an appetite for wanderlust the passion is kept alive! It's been a pleasure to write."

Director Marianne added: "In our 46th year of touring, we're thrilled to welcome back Maeve after the huge success of 'Raising Agents', our Women's Institute play in 2015. Maeve has brought her trademark humour, pathos and faultless research to Best Foot Forward. We're so excited to be touring the show all year to both Youth Hostels and our regular non-theatre venues. YHA have been amazing to work with and we can't wait to welcome audiences across the nation to one of our 150 venues."

In 2017, Mikron Theatre Company will embark on their 46th tour. This unique company travel around the country by the inland waterways on their vintage narrowboat, Tyseley, playing at 150 venues this year!

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 food to audiences in fields and farm shops, fish and chips - and now about hostelling which is being performed in Youth Hostels around the UK.

Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron Theatre Company annually contract a company of four actor-musicians and commission two shows with original music. The shows, routed in social and contemporary history, tell the stories of ordinary people caught up in big events, always in a way that is witty, fun and accessible.

Best Foot Forward will be touring nationally from March 2017 alongside another brand-new show In At The Deep End, a celebration of two hundred years of the RNLI

For further information on Best Foot Forward, visit mikron.org.uk.