We wanted to write to say a huge thank you so much for being part of Midsummer Festival. Midsummer Mischief was a great success and a brilliant addition to the Festival programme.
Fiona Boundy, Creative and Cultural Manager, Milton Keynes City Council, Jun 2024
A collaboration between Rost Productions and No Outcome Art, Midsummer Mischief was originally created for Milton Keynes Midsummer Festival in June 2024 as part of the Porte-cochere open call.
It was created in response to the new city of MK and its long history of ‘making home’ for many groups of settlers who have been welcomed over the years. The city also provides habitat and open spaces for species which are other than human, including a large population of Magpies.
Magpies also have an interesting magical tradition in folklore, with many rhymes, stories, songs, and poetry association to them. One of the collective nouns for a group of Magpies is a ‘Mischief’.
Midsummer Mischief was initially a site-specific performance that engaged the community of Milton Keynes.
The Porte cochere provided a house with an inner nest and a home to three Magpie characters. People were invited to enter into the nest, hear the Magpie family’s story of ‘looking for home’, and to add found bits and bobs to the nest.
Magpie characters are: the ‘Homemaker Magpie’, concerned with tidying and rearranging the interior of the nest, the ‘Collector Magpie’ who seeks out shiny things, bringing them back to line the nest, and the ‘Magnetic Magpie’ who is mostly out and about, meeting and chatting to the neighbours.
There is also the ‘Madge’, a large cycle-powered Magpie puppet who moves around collecting treasure.
The show is engaging and has been very popular at festivals so far.
It is available for events and festivals, as a fixed or perambulating show or walkabout piece.