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  We are now rehearsing for Yule and the new year. If you want to join us or just find out about Mumming then contact The Magnificent Magic Mummers and make magic@mumming.org.

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• The plays

  'The Reeves Tale' from the Canterbury Tales. Very bawdy story about illicit love in a mill-house where cogs and pulleys are not the only things to go creak in the night - also a bully is paid back. A greedy, blustering miller, his wife and daughter and two young clerks share a very small house for the night - guess who misses out!? 25 minute verse-play, traditional rhyme/strict meter, but in modernised language, with two songs.
  
  Mummers play - A traditional play, with some very modern elements. St George and the highwayman fight over the princess, St George is killed! The highwayman, who is a little unsteady on his feet (which might be due to his love for the princess, but is more likely to be the beer) is quite amazed. The magical doctor brings St George back to life with the aid of a rock 'n roll number 'to awaken even the dead'. This is much to the relief of the princess, who has 'almost forgotten what suitable suitors are suitable for'. A fairy tale story with some bawdy humour, in rough (very rough) verse.

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• About the MMs and mumming

  Part of the joy of mumming is its ability to adapt to change to varying circumstances, and the side has presented their show in a variety of places from a pub to a street corner to a major festival audience. It is traditional for the words to be declaimed in a bold manner, with much parody, comic asides and ad lib action. It was once only males who performed, dressed as women but with beards and gruff voices. Some mummer sides still get gratification from dressing in women’s clothes but the Magic Mummers avoid them. As your mummer always told you, don’t talk to strange men in dresses.
  
  The Magic Mummers have been performing two plays this year. St George is a classic combat, death and resurrection, where our hero is revived from the dead by the mysterious clever Doctor, whilst the ferocious Devil Doubt joins in the knockabout fun, laughter, songs and musical spectacle. The Miller’s Tale is a mediaeval story taken from The Reeve's Tale from The Canterbury Tales, a bawdy story about illicit love in a mill-house (ooh missus, you are naughty!).
  
  Written references to mumming go back to the early 1700's, but it is possible they date back further. They show influences of mediaeval mystery plays, court masques and a hint of Pagan ideas of rebirth.
  
  We are always on the look out for new talent. If you can act the fool in front of hundreds of people and have loads of energy then we need you! Contact The Magnificent Magic Mummers and make magic@mumming.org.

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