One of the oldest arts festivals in England, having been established in 1772, Norfolk & Norwich Festival continues the tradition of presenting international performances alongside local artists and emerging new talent.
There are a number of themes across the programme. Under the title of Magic and Mystery, The Dirty Work (14 & 15 May) is a new solo performance by Jo Bannon, blending magic with lived experience of visual impairment. Gandini Juggling present its new show Heka (13 & 14 May), and magician Vincent Gambini’s Close-Up (16, 17, 23, 24 May) is a one-to-one performance in a café.
The theme of Coastlines features River of Hope (9–25 May), which explores the Norfolk rivers that empty into the North Sea and brings together the work of around 500 young people in a large installation. In Cromer, on the North Norfolk Coast, Sea Like a Mirror (15–26 May) led by Cement Fields was commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and White Horses is a new artwork by Ivan Morison.
The third strand, Create and Share, celebrates the Festival’s work with young people and features The Norwich Nine (11 May), a collaboration between Bootworks Theatre Co. and a group of children born the year the UK voted to leave the European Union, MONSTERS (21 May), a short film depicting a post-apocalyptic fairy tale created by and starring children from East Anglia, and Rebel Resistors Radio Club (21–24 May) by Action Hero, in which a group of girls on analogue radios broadcast their manifestos for the future.
In partnership with Norwich Theatre, the festival presents two dance performances from Aakash Odedra on 20 and 21 May: Songs of the Bulbul, which blends orchestral and Indian classical tradition and Islamic Poetry, and Little Murmur for younger audiences, based on Aakash’s struggles with dyslexia.
On 21 May, there's a circus show for all the family in the Adnams Spiegeltent, which this year is Showdown by Upswing, in which six contestants battle to the top in a fast-paced, gameshow-style competition.