IF: Milton Keynes International Festival will transform the physical spaces of Milton Keynes and invite people to see a different side of the city with 10 days of new outdoor theatre, large and small-scale performance, circus, stand-up comedy, live music, family activities and free events.
Here's a look at the events and installations ahead...
Sarruga: Insectes
Friday 20 July, Central Milton Keynes
The Festival is known for the spectacular quality of its opening event. This year, as dusk becomes darkness, Catalan company Sarruga light up the streets with their super-sized Insectes, giant cycle-powered steam-breathing ants, spiders and praying mantises. Driven by a stirring soundtrack they promenade through the city centre streets towards a firework finale in Campbell Park.
9.45pm with firework finale at 10.30pm (timings approximate)
Central Milton Keynes, starts at intu Milton Keynes (Saxon Gate East side) and finishes in Campbell Park
Theater Tol: Life of Tree
Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July, Campbell Park
An installation of large-scale illuminated dresses by Belgian company Theater Tol, Life of Tree honours women who have made a significant contribution to history including Simone de Beauvoir and Florence Nightingale. Life of Tree is both memorial and meeting place - under each dress audiences hear music and spoken word, an ode to the inspiring woman the dress represents. Theater Tol will present a dance performance to accompany the installation on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 July.
Festival Central, Campbell Park
Installation: Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July
Dance performances: Saturday 28 July, 12.10pm, 1.45pm and 3.20pm and Sunday 29 July, 12.10pm, 1.45pm and 4.10pm
Festival Central, Campbell Park MK9 4AD
Free
For The Birds
Friday 20 to Monday 23 July & Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 July, Linford Manor Park
An immersive night-time adventure, For the Birds broke box office attendance records at Brighton Festival. For this high summer incarnation, audiences arrive at a woodland location and embark on a self-guided journey along a trail of installations – performances, sound, projections and kinetic sculptures – which celebrate birds in song, movement and flight.
Artists including Mark Anderson, Jony Easterby, Kathy Hinde, Ulf Pedersen and Pippa Taylor explore the boundaries between raw elemental materials, natural dynamics, sound technology and composition.
Friday 20 to Monday 23 July and Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 July
9.15pm, 9.30pm, 9.45pm, 10pm, 10.15pm, 10.30pm, 10.45pm, 11pm
Linford Manor Park, Great Linford, nearest postcode MK14 5AX
Tickets £15, Under 16s £13, Universal Credit concession £10, Family (4 people, max 2 adults) £52
NEW COMMISSION
Bicycle Bell-ero composed by Craig McLeish
Sunday 22 July, MK Rose, Campbell Park
Bicycle Bell-ero is a new music performance for massed tuned bicycle bells by Milton Keynes-based composer Craig McLeish. Dozens of cyclists will play on specially-tuned cycle bells created from re-purposed handbells. They cycle along the Redways surrounding Campbell Park, marking the locations and routes with new soundscapes, coming together for a full performance of the new composition at the MK Rose.
cycling from 2pm, performance at 3pm
Starts and finishes at the MK Rose, Campbell Park MK9 4AJ
Free
NEW COMMISSION
Back to Back Theatre: The Democratic Set MK
Monday 23 - Wednesday 25 July (filming) Friday 27 July (screening), Central Milton Keynes
The Democratic Set explores the belief that all people are, in principle, equal and should enjoy the same social, political and economic rights and opportunities. Australia’s Back to Back Theatre, which has an ensemble of learning disabled performers at its creative core, is working with Milton Keynes residents and community groups, including migrant communities, learning disabled adults and homeless people.
They create an enclosed performance space to film a series of short live performances and video portraits. The space acts as a visual soap box where participants can project their own understanding of democracy, equality and citizenship. The resulting film offers a unique portrait of its host community.
Free
UK PREMIERE TOUR
THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE
Dries Verhoeven: Phobiarama
20 to 29 July, Campbell Park
Dutch theatre maker and visual artist Dries Verhoeven invites his audiences on board a political ghost train for an immersive excursion through our angst-fuelling media landscape, so flawlessly exploited by politicians, terrorists, marketers and the spinners of fake news.
Sitting in fairground cars, the audience is brought face to face with the ever-increasing threats and paranoia engulfing a society obsessed with safety and perfection.
Friday 20 to Monday 23 July and Wednesday 25 to Sunday 29 July
Sessions at 3.30pm, 4.30pm, 5.30pm, 6.30pm, 8.30pm, 9.30pm and 10.30pm
No 10.30pm slot on Friday 20 July
Next to Festival Central, Campbell Park MK9 4AD
Tickets £15, Universal Credit concession £10
The HandleBards: Romeo and Juliet
Saturday 21 July, Fred Roche Gardens, 406 Silbury Boulevard MK9 2ND
The female crew of The HandleBards arrive in Milton Keynes to present their riotous and funny open-air version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
2pm and 6.30pm
Fred Roche Gardens, 406 Silbury Boulevard MK9 2ND
Free but ticketed
UK PREMIERE
Schweigman& with Slagwerk Den Haag: For The Time Being
Sunday 23 and Monday 24 July, Milton Keynes Theatre
Dutch artist Boukje Schweigman, artistic director of Utrecht’s Schweigman& creates wordless visual and musical theatre which sharpens the senses. Here she works with percussion group Slagwerk Den Haag to create For The Time Being, a playful experiment with the audience’s experience of time. This promenade performance is at Milton Keynes Theatre which sees the venue taking part in the Festival for the first time.
Sunday 22 July, 4pm and 8pm / Monday 23 July, 1.30pm, 4pm and 8pm
Milton Keynes Theatre, 500 Marlborough Gate MK9 3NZ
Tickets £15, Under 16s £13, Universal Credit concession £10, Family (4 people, max 2 adults) £52
ENGLISH PREMIERE
Karine Polwart & The Royal Lyceum Company: Wind Resistance
Thursday 26 - Saturday 28 July, The Stables, Wavendon
An alchemic mix of song and story, Wind Resistance is the debut theatre work from the award-winning singer-songwriter Karine Polwart. A poetic meditation on motherhood, medicine, nature and history, it is inspired by Fala Flow, a protected peat-bog two miles from Polwart’s Midlothian home where every autumn 2,500 pink-footed geese fly from Iceland and Greenland to spend the winter.
8pm
The Stables, Stockwell Lane, Wavendon MK17 8LU
Tickets £27.50
To book tickets click here
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