THE Mikron Theatre Company is going places with its double bill of plays - just not very fast.

In fact, the company is going about 4mph.

Shunning the world of vans and motorways, the four actor musicians who make up the cast and crew of Mikron are touring the country in a 67-year-old narrowboat called Tyseley.

"We were the first company to do this and Mikron has been going for 32 years," said actor and tour manager Charlie Moon from on board the narrowboat somewhere on the Grand Canal.

"I've been with the company for four years," he said.

"You kind of get used to living in close quarters with the people you work with. It's not really that much different from normal touring.

"Acting and touring on a narrowboat are things that people do for hobbies, and my job combines those.

"It can be a bit frustrating if you need to get somewhere in a hurry and the boat gets stuck, and its not as easy as just getting in the back of a van and driving somewhere.

"But travelling on the canals at that speed you get to see things that you would ordinarily miss."

Carrying all their own sets and props, the crew of Mikron moor up at a venue and, this year, stage one of two plays.

Both plays take a second look at historical events to change their audience's preconceptions.

All Steamed Up tells the story of Richard Trevithick, a giant of a man with a flair for invention that led him to invent the steam powered engine in 1801, 28 years before Stephenson's Rocket.

But his tragic flaw was that he never fully developed his ideas. He was more interested in experimenting than patenting.

"He was a heroic fellow who never got the rewards for his thoughts in his own life time," said Moon.

"He was a giant of a man and immensely strong. He used to demonstrate how strong he was by lifting people up by the legs and leaving their boot prints on the ceiling."

Trevithick ended up in South America for 11 years, amassing and loosing a fortune.

In a final irony he had to borrow his fare home to England from none other than Robert Stephenson.

The second play, re-examines the fight for women's suffrage and is being toured this year which marks the centenary of the founding of the Women's Social and Political Union in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst.

The story of Pankhurst and the Suffragettes is well-known, but Mikron investigates the role of the Suffragists, the "less glamorous" campaigners for voting rights for women.

The story is told through the relationship between Pankhurst's daughter Christabel and Emma Taylor, a Lancashire Mill Worker.

"It sounds a bit po-faced but we do the play with a lot of humour and in both plays there is live music which we perform."

Between them the company, which comprises Kate Buxton, Marianne McNamara, Peter Toon and Moon, play 10 instruments including cello, flute, euphonium, trumpet, saxophone, ukulele and mandolin.

Mikron's tour takes them from the Thames to the Tyne, and the local leg of the tour kicks off on Tuesday, July 29, at the Commandery in Worcester before moving on to the Camp House in Grimley.

The tour's last date in Worcestershire is on Saturday, August 9, from Birlingham Village Hall, near Pershore, down to Tewkesbury and Gloucester.

For a full list of dates and performance times is available from www.mikron.org.uk or call the company on 01484 843 701.