Writer/Lyricist: Lucie Raine
Director: Elvi Piper
Composer: Amal El-Sawad
To an extent Wensleydale Whey is a typical Mikron Theatre production: four actor/musicians, a brand new script, plenty of witty songs, a production and design style that makes it easy to transport by van or narrowboat and set up anywhere from arts centres to beer gardens. There are one or two surprises, however, in the text and, especially, the music.
Unusually the script features two distinct sets of four parts. In the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey (in Wensleydale, be it noted) the ghostly Prior (James McLean) who thinks he has a direct line to God presides over three nicely differentiated Brothers. The abbey quartet crop up throughout, sometimes as a trio or duo depending on who’s required elsewhere. Just a field or two away from the abbey townie Sylvia (Georgina Liley) is at odds with the country ways, but is persuaded by eager trespasser Milo (McLean) to set up in business making cheese, with added complications from her New Age sister (Catherine Warnock) and her bluff, no-nonsense farmer neighbour (Rob Took).
The two interconnect when the monks of Jervaulx pick out Milo and Sylvia to carry on the tradition of producing Jervaulx Wensleydale cheese, culminating – after multiple misunderstandings and assorted adventures with the cheese inspector and Mr Cheese – in triumph at the 54th Annual Cheese Awards.
The musical surprises come mainly in the form of the unusual complication of the music, including a taste for pastiche. Above all this shows in the use of suitably modified Gregorian chant, often a cappella, by the monks to start the show (Ora et Labora) and then recurrently, but it’s also there when one of the monks discovers blues (don’t ask me how). Amal El-Sawad skilfully sets a huge variety of Lucie Raine’s lyrics from The Magic of Cheese, complete with magic tricks, to the extended and elaborate 54th Annual Cheese Awards.
Warnock is perfect as the dreamily intense New Ager and also has untold opportunities to reveal her expertise on clarinet and flute. McLean has less chance to shine on trombone than usual, but makes up for it with his accordion playing and his absurd dignity which insists that only a prior has the right to sing the lead in a blues. Took brings plain speaking to an art in various parts and Liley’s self-confidence gives way gracefully to an awareness of what Wensleydale and its cheese mean.
Designer Celia Perkins excels herself in the colourful dales and abbey of the set, with a splendid medieval doorway, and Elvi Piper’s direction fills the whole thing with animated, precisely timed activity.
Reviewed on 9th May 2026. Touring the UK.
