Nothing cheesy about this terrific Mikron production

Georgina Liley, James McLean, Catherine Warnock and Rob Took. Photo credit Robling Photography.

Wensleydale Whey by Lucie Raine (at Calcutt Boats, Southam), 16 August 2026. Performed by The Mikron Theatre. Director: Elvi Piper.

Review by Charles Essex

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Writer Lucie Raine’s clever script takes us back 900 years to Jervaulx Abbey with Cistercian monks, who supported themselves with cheese making.  The show starts with an appropriate Gregorian chant to set the scene.  Fast-forward to the present day and four monks are ghosts, with James McLean as the excellent pompous head prior at the Abbey, and the restless spirits hang around the Abbey trying to get into heaven.

In time honoured and well-respected fashion, all four of the Mikron actors play several roles, changing characters flawlessly.  Recently widowed Sylvie (Georgina Liley) lives on the nearby farm and meets master cheesemaker Milo (James McLean) and they decide to go into business reviving cheesemaking in the area, particularly Jervaulx Wensleydale.  However Sylvie has never taken to country ways like her late husband and is in conflict with her neighbouring farmer Tom (Rob Took).   Rob gives Tom a solid honest man’s approach to farm work, impatient with people he perceives as Townies.  Sylvie’s sister Phoebe (Catherine Warnock) has plans for a New Age centre on the farm, and Georgina and Catherine convey convincingly the conflict of their business and ethereal ideas, respectively.  The ghostly monks keep reappearing, discussing progress or failures in the cheesemaking and interfering by nudging the participants in their, the monks’, desired direction.

As always, the action and dialogue are interspersed with clever and witty songs written by Lucie with music composed by Amal El-Sawad.  The singing and musicality of all the actors are flawless, with James on accordion, and Georgina and Rob on guitar, whilst Catherine plays three wind instruments.  Sound effects are ingeniously achieved with various devices and without a tech desk in sight.

Catherine Warnock, Rob Took, Georgina Liley, James McLean. Photo credit Robling Photography.

James gives an excellent performance accompanied by magic tricks when singing The Magic of Cheese.  Rob is charismatic as Mr Cheese, the showy over-the-top cheesemonger, complete with cowboy hat and leather jacket.  The Ballad of the Health Inspector is pacy 60s R&B, with Rob in superb form as the finicky health inspector who is just about to issue a ‘pass’, when catastrophe strikes.  That cliff hanger just before the interval ensured that the large audience returned expectant to discover how Georgina and James could recover from the setback.

The second half is a slower pace as Sylvie reconciles with both Phoebe and Tom.  There is poignancy and feeling in the discussion between Sylvie and Tom, as he reveals his wife died and the slow process of bereavement, and in their duet Take it Slow.

The final scene at the fifty-fourth annual cheese show, echoing Mikron’s 54 years of touring, brings suspense as will-they-won't-they win the gold medal for their cheese.  No spoilers, you will have to see the show to find out – but you will definitely not be disappointed by this top-notch production.

**For dates and venues for this and Mikron’s other production Top of the Wold, get details from their website : https://mikron.org.uk/